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CNN Live At Daybreak
Support for Taliban Remains Strong in Quetta, Pakistan
Aired November 14, 2001 - 06:43 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: Reports that we're getting from southern Afghanistan say that a battle is under way for the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. Tribal chiefs in Quetta, Pakistan say the Taliban commanders in Kandahar are defecting to the Northern Alliance. However, that's not the picture that CNN's Carol Lin got in Quetta, Pakistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RADIO ANNOUNCER: With the Taliban on the run from the capital of Kabul...
CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Reports out of Afghanistan ran all day long, and the news did not sound good for the ruling Taliban, but their supporters in Quetta, not far from the Afghan border, don't seem phased.
"In the past, people said they would give the Taliban money," this man declares. "Now, they're ready to give their souls and blood."
Downtown, Islamic fundamentalists, raising money for the Taliban, say they are getting ten times the amount of money and other donations since the Northern Alliance captured Mazar-e-Sharif.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is for material. This is for material.
LIN: People are giving their clothes...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LIN: ... their food, old uniforms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uniforms.
LIN: There was no indication here that people think the Taliban is about to fall. But if the Taliban does, hundreds of madrasas, or Islamic religious schools here in the Baluchistan Province, say Taliban fighters could re-base from here. Support in Quetta for the holy war against the West is very much alive.
(on camera): In this one neighborhood alone of Terhas (ph), 17 boys left for Jihad in Afghanistan. And since the bombing campaign has increased over Afghanistan, these families now say they have little hope of ever seeing their sons again.
(voice-over): Families here wait for news. What if the Northern Alliance captures all of Afghanistan? Will they kill their boys? Or will their sons have a chance to retreat back into Pakistan?
Ahmed Khurd's (ph) 18-year-old son left for Jihad and broke his heart.
"I remember my son when I see his paintings," he says, "because he made them by hand."
At the Chaman crossing Tuesday, heavily-armed Taliban were still patrolling their side of the border, and Pakistan's Baluchistan Province is bracing for any Taliban influx, fighters, mostly Arabs, and other nationalities, who may try to flee across the border.
AMIR UL MULK MENGEL, GOVERNOR, BALUCHISTAN PROVINCE: Anybody enters Pakistan without documents, our law is very much clear, we have to arrest them, put them into jail, and then deport them to their respective countries.
LIN: A hundred twenty people, some Taliban, trying to enter Pakistan illegally, were arrested at one checkpoint. But just look at where the border fence at Chaman ends, about 1,000 yards away from the Chaman border guards, and right at the edge of the U.N.'s Killi Faizo refugee camp. Aid workers say Taliban fighters move freely into Pakistan.
PETER KESSLER, UNHCR SPOKESMAN: We've seen Taliban troops come across from Afghanistan, with their weapons, with rocket launchers, and mill around the border area, approach the refugees in a very threatening way.
LIN: So while people in Quetta watch and wait to see what happens next in Afghanistan, the Taliban fund raisers say they will keep stoking public support.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: That is a report that our Carol Lin filed a little while ago. Carol is now going to join us live. She is standing by in Quetta, Pakistan this morning.
Carol, after watching that report, I'm going to ask you this. I mean, I'm sure that you got a chance to talk to these people about some of the scenes that we've been seeing in Kabul and other places around the northern part of the country, that have been liberated, where people are dancing in the street, where it's clear that the Taliban was not actually addressing the will of the people there in its leadership.
What happened with the people that you spoke with there? Were they defending the Taliban's actions of doing so, or what?
LIN: No, people here, Leon, it's really interesting. People can look at a picture, see it live, see what's happening in Afghanistan, and still say, oh, these people are just switching sides, because they know that they're just going to go with the winning side for now. But if the Taliban should come back, you can be sure that many of these people will, once again, grow their beards.
What they're saying here, ordinary people, not even when you go to the madrasas and talk to the Islamic fundamentalists, but ordinary people say you cannot discount the power and the authority of the Taliban, especially here in the Baluchistan Province, Leon, where there are 168 of these madrasas. And in the last 20 years, well, certainly in the last 4 years, they've sent thousands of young men to fight for the Taliban. Most of these people are Pashtuns. Half the fighting force of the Taliban is made up of this ethnic majority, so there are very close ties.
HARRIS: But we must also remember, these are the same people, who told us in the days afterwards, that they thought Israel was responsible for what happened at the World Trade Center, despite all of the discussion and evidence to the contrary there.
Let me ask you this: Can you give us some perspective of about numbers here? The people that you've been speaking with, when you're talking about these madrasas, if they were to actually become more involved in raising money and clothes and supplies and what not, are we talking about a substantial representation there of the population in Pakistan? Or is it just a small number?
LIN: Not a substantial population, per se. I mean, it's a country of more than 140 million people, and I wouldn't characterize, as I've found through my travels, that a majority of this country is made up of Islamic fundamentalist extremists. Most people are actually fairly secular, very much in the 21st century.
But what you can't underestimate here is the influence and the vocalness, as well as the political clout, of the Islamic fundamentalists here, and as you are familiar now with the JUI party, which has been primarily responsible for the demonstrations that we've seen virtually every Friday.
They have proven, over time, that they have power, authority and influence over, perhaps, a minority of people, but a people who have successfully managed to drive out -- go into Afghanistan, drive out the Soviets over a 10-year long war. It doesn't take an entire country to defeat an army. It takes effective fighters, who have known, over time, that one defeat does not mean the end of the war.
HARRIS: All right, Carol, we've got to move on. But real quick, I've seen you a couple of times now without your head cover. How are you getting away with that?
LIN: Well, I'm here at the hotel surrounded by a Western crew, which kind of helps. But definitely, when I go out on the street, as a matter of respect, I do cover my head.
HARRIS: All right, partner -- be careful over there, follow the rules. We want to see you get back here.
LIN: I will.
HARRIS: Carol Lin, reporting live for us --
(CROSSTALK)
LIN: Thanks, Leon.
HARRIS: Quetta, Pakistan. Take care -- we'll see you in a bit.
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