Ahmad Shah Masood dies?
Janus
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1422
Ahmad Shah Masood dies?
KABUL (AFP) - Sources in Washington and Moscow said Monday that Afghan
opposition chief Ahmad Shah Masood was killed in a suicide bombing in
northern Afghanistan, while his followers insisted that he was alive.
Afghan opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masood was killed Sunday in a
suicide bombing carried out in northern Afghanistan by individuals
claiming to be members of the media, a US official said.
‘That’s our understanding as well,’ said the official when asked about
reports that Masood was killed in the bombing in northern Afghanistan.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said ‘some
individuals who portrayed themselves as members of the media conducted
the suicide bombing which apparently killed Masood as well.’
The official said it remained to be seen what the impact of the
assassination would be.
However a State Department spokesman said the United States was unable
to confirm the assassination reports.
Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency continued to report late Monday that
Masood had died.
‘Critically wounded, Masood died while being transferred to a hospital
at Dushanbe,’ the Tajik capital, the agency said, without revealing
its sources.
In the same report, it quoted informed Afghan sources as saying that
one of Masood’s deputies, General Fakhim, would take over command of
the opposition’s Northern Alliance forces.
Given the good relations between ITAR-TASS and Russian officials on
the ground, the information from the Russian agency should be taken
seriously, said diplomatic sources in Moscow.
But the Afghan opposition vehemently denied reports that Masood had
died of wounds sustained in the bombing in northern Afghanistan the
day before.
Ahmad Shah Masood is ‘100 per cent alive’ and has received a visit
from ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Masood aide General
Fakhim, his spokesman told AFP late Monday.
Waisuddin Salik ‘strongly rejected’ reports that Masood had been
killed in a suicide bomb attack in northern Afghanistan on Sunday.
‘I strongly reject all these reports. This afternoon Professor Rabbani
and General Fakhim visited Masood in the hospital. Fakhim assured me
by telephone that Masood was in good health and his condition was
improving,’ he said at 1730 GMT.
‘He was unconscious only for the first few hours after the incident,’
he said.
‘But later last night he became conscious and now is OK and he can
speak. His health situation is improving and very soon he will make an
interview with the media,’ the spokesman said.
‘I can assure 100 per cent that he is alive and his health condition
is not giving cause for concern.’
‘Masood is in a hospital but his condition is out of danger,’
spokesman Jamshed told AFP by satellite phone.
‘We can assure you that he is OK and the doctors have advised him not
to attend any phone calls,’ Jamshed said.
‘He will recover soon and will speak to media,’ he said, claiming that
he was calling from the same area where Masood has been kept in
hospital.
Opposition officials said Masood was in hospital in Khwaja Bahauddin,
northern Afghanistan. However other opposition sources had said Masood
was receiving treatment in Tajikistan.
A press statement from Masood’s Northern Alliance sent to AFP in
Dushanbe said that the opposition leader had suffered ‘light wounds’
to his leg and arms.
It said Masood had temporarily handed over military command to a
deputy, identified as General Fakhim. ITAR-TASS, citing informed
Afghan sources, reported that control of the movement had been given
to Fakhim.
Meanwhile, Voice of America quoting his brother Ahmed Wali Masood said
that condition of Ahmed Shah Masood is serious but stable.
‘My brother has been shifted to neighbouring Tajikistan for
treatment,’ Wali Masood added.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Paris said France was trying to obtain
information about Masood’s condition, while an official at the Afghan
embassy in London said his condition was ‘improving minute-by-minute’
and was ‘much better than yesterday’.
The official, who said he was a press officer, cited as his source an
‘assistant, a close aide’ to Masood.
Masood’s relatives said his condition was not life-threatening.
‘Masood’s health is fine. He is injured but his life is not in
danger,’ said Mohammed Saleh Reghistani, a relative who serves as a
diplomat for the government-in-exile in Moscow.
Reghistani said the two Arabs were killed when they exploded a bomb
during a meeting on Sunday at Masood’s base in northeastern Takhar
province, along with Masood’s interpreter and personal assistant Assem
Suhail, who sometimes acted as his spokesman.
The Afghan ambassador to India, Masood Khalili, and a foreign ministry
official were also injured when a video camera apparently exploded as
the Arabs conducted an ‘interview’ with Masood.
‘They are in the same hospital with Masood in Khwaja Bahauddin
(Masood’s Takhar base),’ Salik said.
But the number two at the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe, Mahayuddin
Mehdi, said Masood was still in northern Afghanistan, where his forces
control a slice of territory.
Tajikistan is used as a supply base by Masood, whose forces are based
a short helicopter ride across the border in northern Afghanistan.
Taliban, Osama blamed for attack: Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia
and Osama bin Laden were behind the attack on Ahmad Shah Masood, an
opposition spokesman said Monday.
The spokesman, Engineer Turyalai, told the Afghan Islamic Press news
agency from Iran that the attack was planned by the Taliban and Osama
bin Laden.
‘It was a broad plot in which the Taliban, Osama and some others were
involved,’ he said.
Taliban denies: Taliban militia on Monday dismissed allegations it was
behind attack on Ahmad Shah Masood.
Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel told AFP the Islamic militia
had heard about the suicide bombing at Masood’s office in northeastern
Afghanistan through the media.
‘Masood was our enemy on the frontlines but we are not involved in
this,’ he said.
‘If we had carried such an attack we would have already announced it.’
Mutawakel said he could not comment on whether the attack was a
welcome development in the conflict.
‘I only pray to God for an end to Afghanistan’s problems,’ he said.
France condemns attack: French Foreign Secretary Loic Hennkinne Monday
condemned the bombing attack on Ahmad Shah Masood and urged warring
factions to seek a political solution to the Afghan conflict.
‘We condemn terrorism all over the world. France believes terrorism is
not a way out’ to resolve differences.
‘It is imperative to bring all Afghan factions together to have a
broad-based government in Afghanistan.’
QA, MAJ.. The CyberQuaid
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QA, MAJ.. The CyberQuaid
Accolades:
Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer
still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited
with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.