Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2001 10:54:11 +1100
Subject: a jihadi's story


November 30, 2001

                           Unfortunate Pakistani regrets joining jihad
                           Short military career

                           Julius Strauss
                           The Daily Telegraph

                           KABUL - Mohammed Jamil must be one of the 
world's most
                           wretched jihad fighters. Six weeks ago, he was 
studying the
                           Koran at a madrassah in eastern Pakistan when 
his mullah
                           approached him.

                           "Go to Afghanistan," he urged. "Go and fight the 
Americans."

                           The skinny 25-year-old lay in a dirty bed in 
Kabul's military
                           hospital yesterday, his head disfigured by 
beatings, shrapnel
                           embedded in his leg.

                           "I have a mother, father and two brothers at home in
                           Kashmir," he mumbled through swollen and 
blackened lips. "I
                           am very sad that I left them to come here."

                           Mr. Jamil's military career was short and 
undistinguished. He
                           sneaked across the border into Afghanistan with 
thousands of
                           other Pakistani militants and headed for Kabul.

                           Expecting to be welcomed with open arms, he was 
instead
                           hated by residents and despised by his hosts, 
the Afghan
                           Taliban he had come to help. For a month, he 
waited to fight
                           U.S. soldiers whom he never saw.

                           On the night of Nov. 12, the Taliban fled the 
city in a convoy of
                           pickup trucks for the movement's southern 
stronghold,
                           Kandahar.

                           Mr. Jamil was one of hundreds of Pakistanis and 
other foreign
                           fighters left behind. The next night he was 
cornered by
                           Northern Alliance soldiers bent on revenge.

                           Mumbling prayers to steel his resolve, he seized 
a man he
                           believed to be one of his enemies and thrust a 
hand-grenade
                           between their bodies. But the grenade rolled to 
the ground.

                           The blast gave both men leg injuries but killed 
neither. It
                           turned out that Mr. Jamil's victim was Muhammad 
Kazim, 34,
                           a devout Muslim who teaches the Koran to 
secondary school
                           students. Mr. Kazim had been pleading with the 
soldiers to
                           spare Mr. Jamil's life.

                           In another wing of the hospital, Mr. Kazim was 
lying on his
                           back, his leg encased in white plaster.

                           "I had been praying in the mosque and was 
returning home
                           when I saw that the mujahedeen had caught three 
Pakistanis,"
                           he said. "They killed one and another escaped. I 
pleaded with
                           them not to kill the third. In return, he 
clasped me tightly and
                           let off a grenade."

                           Doctors say Mr. Kazim will be allowed home in 
about 10 days.
                           But Mr. Jamil's future is less certain. When he 
recovers, he
                           can expect to face a firing squad or be 
sentenced to a long
                           prison term for his part in helping the Taliban.



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