November 4, 2001	Sunday	Shaba’an 17, 1422

KARACHI, Nov 3: Saeed Umar will be guest of honour at a wedding next week after guiding his niece through Taliban territory, US bombing raids and across devastated mountain roads to get her to the mosque on time.

Saeed is the hero of his family after guiding the young bride-to-be, his two small children and another relative on an epic trip from Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan to this metropolis.

“I began my journey from Baghlan on Saturday night (Oct 27) and it took five days to reach Karachi,” the 42-year-old craftsman said.

Baghlan, which is in Taliban-controlled territory, is about 500 kilometres north of Kabul, and from there more than 700 kilometres to Karachi.

The family reached Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan, at midnight on Oct 28.

“We were greeted with heavy US bombing. There was uninterrupted carpet bombing until four in the morning,” Saeed said. The family took refuge in an inn.

The journey resumed in a small convoy with other refugees. A bus took them on a 14-hour journey to the Pakistan border. “It was risky in the bus, in the mountains a lot of the roads do not exist any more,” said Saeed.

The young woman’s name and age was not revealed by the family. The lucky groom to be is Asif Khan, 25, who sat happily on two bags full of rice in a courtyard as his uncle recounted the adventure.

Nearby there was a cannister of cooking oil and other key ingredients for next week’s wedding lunch.

The 25-year-old Asif has been living at a refugee camp in Karachi, which now houses more than 25,000 people who have fled Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion in 1979.

For Saeed and his family, the grim conditions in Afghanistan had become too much.

He said that ordinary people were the main victims of US air raids.

The Taliban have camouflaged themselves in safe heavens, he said. “They have quit the cities and towns and now stay in mountain caves, leaving civilians to face the music.”

Since the US attacks started though, the Taliban have eased their application of Shariat laws on the Afghan people, he said.—AFP