December 7, 2001	Friday	Ramazan 21, 1422

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PESHAWAR, Dec 6: As the Afghans were singing a power-sharing agreement in Bonn, Germany, which would become effective from Dec 22, the US airstrikes continued on Nangarhar and Kandahar provinces.

Though the two-month severe bombing has helped Washington to remove the Taliban, the primary goal of nabbing Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar, is yet to be achieved.

Nobody knows exactly where both these men are - whether in Tora Bora or Milawa in the Nangarhar province or in Kandahar.

Reports pouring in from Nangarhar province suggest that the US bombing in Tora Bora and Milawa areas has left hundreds of civilians dead or injured.

“All the 30 houses in Mudoo village - on the way to Tora Bora from  Jalalabad - were razed to the ground, and 51 victims were dead,” said Sami Ullah, a young bearded Afghan from Jalalabad.

At a time when the world community, especially the US-led coalition, is celebrating the outcome of the Bonn summit,  the people of Afghanistan already shattered by the 23-year long war and civil strife continue to suffer.

“One can hardly see the plane or hear it come. It is only when the bombs explode you realize the attack has taken place,” said Ghundi Gul, 40, who lost both of his leg during a US air attack in the Ghani Khel area, near Jalalabad.

Gul is the only provider of a family of 11, and has become Taliban supporter after losing his legs and is under treatment in a Peshawar hospital.

He believes that the war in Afghanistan is not going end soon. “The war will continue until the Americans are able to capture the Tora Bora hills,” said Ghundi Gul.

He said: “Though the student militia had not introduced Shariat in letter and spirit, at least there was peace in the country.”

Every injured person being treated at Peshawar’s HMC, has a sorry story to tell.

Naqeeb Ullah, 45, a school teacher, lost his entire family of 14 last week in American bombing at Aggam, a village in the Nangarhar province - near Tora Bora.

He suffered multiple injuries to his arms, legs and upper left abdomen, lost his left eye as a shrapnel pierce through it.

His attendant, Noor Dad Khan, a technician at the Jalalabad hospital’s blood bank, told this scribe, “Naqeeb Ullah lost his entire and family and house in the US bombing. But he does no know about it.”