MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Feb 19: Forces loyal to veteran Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum are hunting one of the most loathed figures in the former Taliban government — a one-legged minister who escaped during the dying days of the puritanical regime.
Rumours have swirled in recent days that Dadullah, the former deputy defence minister who was based in north, has been captured or is close to capture after an extensive manhunt in a remote district.
But Dostum, who is the current deputy defence minister, said on Tuesday the search for the fugitive had so far been unsuccessful.
“We have sent about 2,000 men to try and find him but it has not been successful yet,” the burly general said in an interview with Reuters. “But we will continue with the search.”
Dostum’s troops are scouring the mountainous district of Sar-i-Pul, and another top military official said on Tuesday that a satellite phone call had been traced to Dadullah in the area.
His capture would be a relief for Dostum, who let Dadullah slip out of his hands after the hated minister was surrounded in the northeastern Taliban stronghold of Kunduz.
Northern alliance fighters, many of them loyal to Dostum, and backed by US bombing surrounded thousands of Taliban and Arab fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden during last November’s siege of the city.
Despite being surrounded, Dadullah was for unclear reasons allowed to travel to the northern town of Balkh, one of Dostum’s traditional strongholds.
From there he disappeared in mysterious circumstances, and Dostum’s commanders have been accused of turning a blind eye.
Others said Dadullah had agreed to bring 450 troops from Kunduz to surrender in Mazar-i-Sharif, but instead went to nearby Balkh to prepare a surprise attack on the city in conjunction with troops led by two other senior Taliban commanders. The attack never took place.
What seems likely is that Dadullah was a beneficiary of rivalry within the Northern Alliance.
As the Taliban government fell, different factions within the Northern Alliance, including Dostum’s, wanted to claim as much credit as possible by having senior Taliban commanders surrender to them.—AFP
