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| February 23, 2002 | Saturday | Zilhaj 10, 1422 |
Afghans celebrate Eid, worry about future
KABUL, Feb 22: Afghans gathered in mosques and at the homes of relatives to celebrate Eidul Azha on Friday, with many welcoming the freedom that came with the fall of the Taliban, but others were concerned about the fragility of their new government.
In one sign of the potential dangers, the international peacekeeping force in Kabul announced that investigators had concluded that two or three gunmen opened fire on British peacekeepers as they got out of their jeep to begin a Wednesday night patrol in the west of the city.
Police are searching for the gunmen, said spokesman for the force, Capt Graham Dunlop.
Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, tried to downplay rifts in his government and the United Sates Central Intelligence Agency warned that the seeds for a renewed civil war were present.
Residents sacrificed sheep and distributed food among relatives and the poor to celebrate Eid.
Butcher Farzad Fakiri said he welcomed the freedom that came with the Taliban regime’s fall in November, but worried about the future.
“We are free. We can do what we want,” said Fakiri, as he walked down a muddy street with an ax on his shoulder, offering to butcher animals.
“As for the future, I’m not so sure,” he said. “For the time being, everything is good, but the future depends on God.”
Afghanistan’s fragile unity seems to be fraying with reports that thousands of Pakhtoons were fleeing their homes, claiming that anti-Taliban commanders have been inciting people to loot their homes and, in some cases, kill them.
French aid organization Doctors Without Borders issued an urgent appeal on Thursday for more food aid in northern Afghanistan, saying malnutrition, mortality rates and the number of displaced people are rising sharply.
In recent days about 20,000 Afghans, mostly people fleeing drought, hunger and ethnic strife, have fled the north, said UN spokesman Yusuf Hassan.—APP
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