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CNN Sunday Morning

Afghan-Pakistani Border Bustles With Traffic

Aired October 07, 2001 - 07:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Tensions are high along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. The heavily guarded crossings are bustling with traffic. ICN correspondent Tristana Moore investigates what is traveling in and out of Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRISTANA MOORE, ICN REPORTER (voice-over): In the distance, the white flag of the Taliban. This is Shaman (ph), the gateway to Afghanistan. Lines of trucks wait to cross the border. Each day, hundreds pass through en route to Kandahar. This is one of the world's biggest smuggling rackets, a main source of income for the Taliban. Drugs and weapons come in and out Afghanistan. And now, there's a different trade, taxi drivers told us they were carrying men into Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban.

WAZIR MOHAMMAD, TAXI DRIVER: I was carrying the fore person of Taliban. They are turbine. And they said to me that I'm going -- we are going to Afghanistan for the help of the Taliban.

MOORE: And the word is that truck drivers are also involved in this new business, carrying fighters into Afghanistan.

(on-camera): Pakistan says its border with Afghanistan is closed and that the only people coming across the boats are with the relevant documents. But with all these trucks coming and going, who's to say what they're carrying.

(voice-over): According to eyewitnesses, security is so lax at the border that anything can get through.

DR. ABDUL SAMAD: Ten to 20 to 50 trucks are passing already Pakistan every night. They are going by the other routes. We know only that these are Arabs.

MOORE (on-camera): How do you know that?

SAMAD: We know to every person by the face, by the language.

MOORE: Have you spoken to any of these people yourself?

SAMAD: Yes.

MOORE: What do they tell you? SAMAD: That only we came to Afghanistan every time after (UNINTELLIGIBLE) truce, that this is Jihad. And after that, they are saying that we are the supporters of Talibans.

MOORE (voice-over): We asked the Pakistani guards at the Afghan border for permission to visit another crossing point, but they refused. In the last weeks, the frontier police have clamped down on foreign journalists even trying to stop us from filming. But the authorities couldn't prevent us from talking to local people who suggested that despite Pakistan's public support for the anti-terror coalition, there are many Pakistanis who still privately bank the Taliban.

BAHRAM KHAN (through translator): Pakistan is very involved in the politics of Afghanistan. I see many retired Pakistani army officials and unemployed young men crossing the border to fight for the Taliban.

MOORE: And it's a view shared by tribal chiefs who live on the Afghan border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barracks, Pakistan is a barrack in the private land of Afghanistan.

MOORE: As we traveled back from Shaman (ph), we experience firsthand another kind of corruption that everyone talks about but few witness, the police who we've been forced to travel with was stopped by local frontier guards. They told me our armed escort had been carrying smuggled TVs destined for Pakistan's lucrative markets.

Here, on the Afghan border, the stakes are high and allegiances easily shift. The challenge for the Pakistani government will be to convince its new allies in the coalition against the Taliban that its support is guaranteed.

Tristana Moore, Channel 4 News, Shaman (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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