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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bodies of Six Pakistanis Killed in Afghanistan Returned to Country for Burial

Aired October 26, 2001 - 05:25   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We take a look now at one aspect of what America is up against. The bodies of six Pakistanis killed in Afghanistan have been returned to their country for burial. Now, they were members of Harkat ul-Mujahadeen, which the State Department recently listed as a terrorist organization.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The family, though, of one of the dead men says that they believe he is a martyr and that other sons will take his place.

More now from John Vause.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the roof of their home in Karachi, Pakistan, the family of Mohamed Farooq gathered around the flag of Harkat ul-Mujahedeen not to mourn their loss, but to rejoice. In Islam, this is not something to cry about, says Farooq's father. This is something to be happy about. Now people say to me you're the father of a freedom fighter.

Sadiq Anwan (ph) says the family has shed no tears because his son died fighting for Islam. No true Muslim can call himself a terrorist, he says. A true Muslim would only do god's work. Others can call them terrorists, but the true terrorist is America.

Terrorism he calls the U.S.-led air strikes on Afghanistan. The attacks on September 11, he says, were not terrorism, but part of a Jewish conspiracy. And he has two more sons both trained by their brother and both, he says, will go and fight with the Taliban and al Qaeda. And then they're dead, he says, he'll take their place.

Mohammed Farooq had fought for the past 13 years in Indian- controlled Kashmir with the Pakistani group Harkat ul-Mujahedeen. At just 29, he was a local commander. But two days after the air strikes began, he went to Afghanistan and Mujahadeen leaders say that at the time he was killed last Tuesday, Farooq and 21 others were in a strategy meeting to help the Taliban fight the U.S.

Farooq's younger brother, Abdul Raheem (ph), says if he could, he would go to the United States and kill Americans. It is also my wish that I shed every drop of my life for god, he says. God willing, whenever I get the call, I will sacrifice my life. On Wednesday, Taliban supporters in Karachi clashed with police after Pakistani border guards refused to allow Farooq's body across the border into Pakistan for burial. His body was later smuggled across the frontier and then laid to rest.

(on camera): Mohammed Farooq's family live in this working class area of Karachi and here he's considered a martyred hero. Here, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are not terrorists, but freedom fighters.

(voice-over): And it may be a view shared by a minority, but one which this family at least is willing and eager, it seems, to die for.

John Vause, CNN, Karachi, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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