ThisIsLondon.com Residents celebrate Taliban defeat

The people of Mazar-e-Sharif are sacrificing sheep and praying to celebrate the defeat of the Taliban in their city.

The Afghan city's new rulers declared that women there will no longer have to be veiled, a top official said.

Fighters of the opposition Northern Alliance drove Taliban forces out of Mazar-e-Sharif, the main city in northern Afghanistan, on Friday in a key victory that leaves the alliance in control of the areas bordering Uzbekistan and opens up supply routes to the poorly equipped fighters.

"The general mood of the people is very good," said Mohammed Hasham Saad, the top alliance official in Uzbekistan.

He said that after Taliban fighters fled, people gathered to sacrifice sheep and pray in the blue-tiled mosque that dominates the centre of the city.

Mr Saad said the alliance's first priority will be to restore electricity and gas. The city itself was largely untouched by the fighting and there is little damage to buildings.

The Taliban forced women to veil themselves, but Mr Saad said that under the alliance, females in Mazar-e-Sharif will be no longer have to obey this rule.

The alliance plans to reopen the University of Mazar-e-Sharif "for girls and boys", he said. Girls were banned from schools under the Taliban.

The alliance is also inviting foreign doctors to the city.

"It doesn't matter if it is a man or a woman," Mr Saad said. "We are different from the Taliban."

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2001

Answers

BBC Saturday, 10 November, 2001, 17:05 GMT

Afghans enjoy freedom from Taleban By Pam O'Toole

Residents of Mazar-e-Sharif have told the BBC that the city is calm, with people going about their daily business.

Northern Alliance soldiers are said to be visible on the streets.

But local residents - speaking to the BBC Persian Service by telephone - say that so far there has been no sign of the bloodshed which marked previous takeovers of the city.

Both men and women are reported to be taking advantage of the more liberal lifestyle allowed by the Northern Alliance.

Before the Taleban took over, Mazar was one of Afghanistan's most liberal cities.

It had television and radio stations. Women were allowed to work and attend schools and universities.

The city's residents - predominantly ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras - deeply resented the restrictions imposed by the conservative and largely Pashtun Taleban.

They are now taking the opportunity to discard them.

Residents say that women are again out on the streets without having to be escorted by a husband or a male relative.

They are also visiting Mazar's most holy shrine - an opportunity denied them under Taleban rule.

Meanwhile, men are reported to be queuing outside barber shops, anxious to trim their hair and rid themselves of the beards which the Taleban insisted they wear.

People are enjoying listening to music.

Although some shops are still closed, many are open. Some of the city's ethnic Pashtuns - who make up about a third of the population - were originally said to have been scared that they might be targeted by Northern Alliance troops.

But local people say that, so far, there appears to be no sign of the bloodletting which many remember from past occasions when the city has changed hands.

According to one man, this time people are more confident that the Northern Alliance can hold on to Mazar, because they now have the backing of the Americans.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2001

NYPost

IT'S MAZAR E-LATION!

By DAN KADISON

November 11, 2001 -- Jubilant residents of Mazar-e-Sharif - some who helped fight the Taliban - took to the streets yesterday to celebrate their liberation.

They sacrificed sheep and looked skyward in praise, thankful for the efforts of American bombers and N orthern Alliance troops who notched a key victory and brought their land closer to freedom.

"The general mood of the people is very good," said Mohammed Hasham Saad, an alliance spokesman.

Now that they've freed the people of Taliban rule, the conquerors are promising to lift the regime's oppressive rules. They won't require women to wear veils in public, will reopen the university to both "girls and boys," and will allow doctors of both sexes into the city, he said.

"It doesn't matter if it is a man or a woman," said Saad. "We are different from the Taliban."

And while the glee continued, anti-Taliban forces made moves to secure the north of Afghanistan yesterday as troops advanced into more provinces and prepared to make headway into the west.

A day after Northern Alliance forces drove Taliban soldiers from the key city of Mazar-e-Sharif, opposition members claimed victory in four more provinces.

"Today we have captured Samangan, Sara-i-Pol, Faryab and Jowzjan," rebel leader Abdul Rashid Dostum said yesterday.

Dostum - who under thunderous American aerial cover helped lead the charge into Mazar-e-Sharif - said his troops were also closing in on the western province of Badghis.

The plan would strategically place his group near that of fellow rebel leader Gen. Ismail Khan, whose men are inching nearer to the western city of Herat.

Khan hopes to pounce on a town above Herat soon, launching an "offensive against the Taliban in Qala-i-Nau" tonight, said Khan spokesman Sayed Naseer Mohammad, claiming their group has killed 31 Taliban soldiers over the past week.

From Herat, the Northern Alliance could group and begin an advance on the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar to the southeast.

Meanwhile, American bombers attacked Taliban positions 15 miles north of Kabul, the Afghanistan capital, where rebels threaten to advance.

But last night, President Bush told the Northern Alliance - dependent on American air cover - to stay out of Kabul.

"We encourage our friends to move south . . . but not into the city," Bush said.

Kabul residents, mistreated by groups tied to the Northern Alliance and of a different ethnic group, don't trust them, Secretary of State Colin Powell explained.

Powell added if Kabul is captured, it should be made an "open city," a neutral territory similar to Berlin after World War II.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2001