PESHAWAR, Nov 18: The Taliban surrounded in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province agree to surrender before a UN-supervised neutral authority as incessant US bombings leave hundreds dead and wounded.

“We have authorized the governor of the province to take necessary steps in this respect,” Mulla Fazil, the Taliban’s chief commander for Afghanistan’s northern zone told Dawn by satellite telephone from Kunduz on Sunday night.

He said that 800 people had died in one of the heaviest bombings on Kunduz in the last two days, and over 250 were killed in Khanabad district on Saturday, he said.

The Taliban, however, have made it clear they would under no circumstances surrender to the Northern Alliance. “We don’t trust them,” Fazil said. 20

The puritanical militia has been alarmed by the killings in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul by the Northern Alliance forces.

The Taliban have set out four conditions to surrender Kunduz:

* They would surrender the province only to a neutral Afghan under the UN supervision;

* Foreign fighters, including Arabs and Chechen supporters of Osama bin Laden would be handed over to the UN to be sent back to their respective countries;

* Heavy weapons would be surrendered to the neutral caretakers; and

* The Taliban should be allowed a safe passage to disperse and go home.

Afghan sources put the total number of Taliban troops holed up in Kunduz at between 20,000 to 25,000 and a significant number of Arab and other foreign fighters linked to Osama’s Al Qaeda organization.

Earlier, Mulla Dadullah, a top Taliban commander, dismissed reports of Taliban’s proposed surrender to the UN as “lies”. However, he said: “We are prepared to resolve this matter through negotiations,” Dadullah, who with two other top Taliban commanders, Mulla Fazil and Mullla Berather, are in Kunduz.

A Taliban official clarified: “Our promise made to those negotiating a peaceful transition holds.”

Dadullah who had gone to Mazar-i-Sharif with 8,000 men late last month to preempt its fall later returned to Kunduz, but could not leave as all routes leaving the northern province # had been cut off and seized by the Northern Alliance forces.

Haji Omar Khan, the brother of a former Mujahideen commander and late governor, Arif Khan, who was shot and killed by unknown assailants in Peshawar last year, rules the Pakhtoon-dominated Kunduz.

Earlier, tribal elders from Kunduz told a news conference in Peshawar that the Taliban were prepared to surrender and support a neutral administration.

Afghan sources said that the Taliban’s offer had been communicated to the US and Britain.

Tayyab Agha, personal secretary to Taliban supreme leader, Mulla Muhammad Omar, acknowledged that the Taliban were faced with difficulties in Kunduz but denied having knowledge of a possible surrender.

The Kandahar governor, Mulla Muhammad Hassan Rahmani told BBC Pushto Service: “The people of Kunduz continue to support the Taliban and are prepared to resist the Northern Alliance.”

He claimed that the situation in the Taliban’s spiritual headquarters was calm and peaceful. “People are happy,” he said but added that 20 to 25 people were killed in the US bombing in Kandahar on Sunday.