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CNN Live At Daybreak

Afghan Security Arrests 350 for Plot Against Government

Aired April 04, 2002 - 05:18   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On to Afghanistan now, where security officials say they have foiled a plot overthrow the interim government.

CNN's Walter Rodgers is live in Kabul with the details -- good morning, Walter.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Afghan security officials have rounded up and arrested about 350 supporters of the renegade warlord here, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The charge, that they were plotting to overthrow the government of interim leader Hamid Karzai.

Explosives, bombs, weapons were found in the possession of these supporters of Hekmatyar. It is believed that they were going to attack the ISAF, the international peacekeepers here in Kabul, and that they had planned to bomb American targets elsewhere in Afghanistan.

Afghan Interior Ministry officials also say that one of the reasons the exiled king, Zahir Shah, has not been allowed to come home to Afghanistan is because of the threat from Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's warriors out there.

He is, of course, one of the most notorious warlords in Afghanistan. And some time ago, not that long ago, Hekmatyar's people were distributing leaflets here in Kabul saying that if the king, Zahir Shah, returned to Afghanistan, he would be assassinated.

Hekmatyar himself is in the Afghan countryside. No one is sure where he is. He built his reputation as a bloody fighter fighting for the mujahideen against the Soviets. Then he fought in the Afghan civil war against the Taliban, or, excuse me, against the Northern Alliance. The Taliban didn't like him so he was exiled to Iran, where he's been until recently. But the Iranians threw him out because they saw him plotting against the interim government here.

Afghans have no particular love for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. One of the reasons, of course, is that he is called the big evil. He had a reputation for shelling civilian neighborhoods and killing people at random during the civil wars here in Afghanistan. But the fact that 300 of his supporters, 350 of his supporters have been rounded up here in Kabul does not bode well. The United States and Europe have invested all their hopes for a stable Afghanistan on the leadership of Hamid Karzai and here you have a notorious warlord sending his supporters into this capital to plot against the interim government -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And the big evil has managed to slip away and no one knows where he is.

RODGERS: That's right.

COSTELLO: All right, Walter Rodgers reporting live from Kabul this morning, thank you.

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