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Taliban kill 5 policemen at station
Reuters
Tuesday, July 15, 2003

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Taliban fighters attacked a district police station in
southern Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar Province, killing five men, including a
commander, a security official said on Tuesday.

The Taliban fighters arrived in four pickup trucks on Monday night and attacked
the police station in Ghorak district northwest of Kandahar.

"The clash lasted for more than half an hour. The chief police of Ghorak, Sahak
Mama, is among the five killed," said Salim Khan, a provincial official. "The
Taliban have fled back to their hideouts."

Two policemen were wounded. It was not known if the attackers had suffered any
casualties, Khan said.

Kandahar is the former power base of the Taliban, who were driven from power in
a U.S.-led offensive in late 2001. Taliban fighters have been blamed for a rash
of attacks in recent months, many of them in the south, raising fears that the
hard-line militia was regrouping.

The government and U.S.-led forces play down worry of a resurgent Taliban
challenging the government but say they are capable of launching raids and bomb
attacks.

About 100 Afghan government troops and civilians have been killed or wounded in
bomb blasts and rocket strikes across southern Afghanistan since the beginning
of the year.

Pro-democracy march

About 1,000 pro-democracy demonstrators marched through the capital Tuesday,
calling on authorities to be wary of fundamentalism while upholding human rights
and press freedom, The Associated Press reported from Kabul.

The protest came as the appointed governor of eastern Nangarhar Province, Din
Mohammed, banned video games "to save children from falling into immoral
activities," according to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press.

The peaceful protest in Kabul also called on the government to press ahead with
reforms outlined at a meeting of senior Afghan leaders in Bonn in late 2002.
Those included the drafting of a constitution and holding national elections in
June 2004.

"We want the Bonn agreement to be implemented completely," Naghar Nangarhari
said. "We want human rights and rights for women, all across the country."

President Hamid Karzai's administration has been struggling to rebuild
Afghanistan since the hard-line Taliban regime was toppled in a U.S.-led war in
2001.

Many complain that little has been done while the influence of Islamic
fundamentalists within his government grows.

Many in key positions espouse a hard-line interpretation of Islam similar in
many respects to the policies of the Taliban.


--

"Naturally, the common people don't want war;
neither in Russia nor in England nor in America,
nor for that matter in Germany.
That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders
of the country who determine the policy and
it is always a simple matter to drag the people
along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist
dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist
dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them
they are being attacked and denounce the
pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same way
in any country."

- Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall