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Many casualties in renewed fighting in northern Afghanistan

Scores of Pakistanis were killed and a large number captured by the Afghan northern alliance when it crushed the latest Taliban offensive in northern Kabul recently.

Forces of Ahmed Shah Masood, commander of the northern alliance, have captured over 1,000 prisoners of war in the recent attacks and a good number of them are Pakistanis, while a few are from China and Myanmar, The Daily News reported.

The Taliban suffered heavy losses in the fresh round of fighting.

Several bodies of Taliban militia are lying on the frontline and scores are awaiting identification. Among the dead are a good number of Pakistanis and on identification their bodies are despatched to their native villages for funeral rites, the publication said.

The paper said that thousands of actvists of Sepah Sathaba Pakistan, Jamait Ulema Islam, Harkatul Mujahideen and Jeesh-i-Mohammed are not only supporting the Taliban but actively involved in their military operations. This clearly indicates deep involvement of Pakistan in the Afghan civil war.

Daoud Panjshiri, a close lieutenant of Masood, admitted that a lot of prisoners were killed on the frontline as it was difficult to control the alliance soldiers, who lost their kith and kin and houses in the fighting.

The POWs are often sold back, executed or paraded.

Daoud said that none of the POWs, who had been kept in two camps would be released until an international peace conference was concluded. Renewed hostilities indicate yet another summer of bloodshed at the base of the Hindkush mountains.

UNI

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