TEHRAN, Nov 11: Some 200 pro-Taliban Pakistani fighters were killed in Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday and Saturday after the capture of that strategically important Afghan city by Northern Alliance forces.

Haji Mohammad Muhaqiq, who heads the faction representing the Shia Hazara community, also told the Iranian Entekhab daily that the Northern Alliance had encircled some 1,200 Pakistanis, in the Maktab Soltan Raziyeh area, who were “not able to flee” with the Taliban.

“We gave them warnings to surrender,” said Muhaqiq who also heads the political committee of the Hizb-i-Wahdat opposition movement.

“They asked us to send representatives over several times, but unfortunately they shot them. So far, six of our men have been killed,” Muhaqiq said.

“Finally, we gave the order to attack them and the clashes are still continuing,” Muhaqiq told the paper adding: “Some 200 of them (Pakistanis) have been killed.”

“Except for the Kunduz and Baqlan provinces, all the other areas of northern Afghanistan have been seized by the Northern Alliance,” he said adding that the forces of Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam, as well as his own and those of Tajik commander Atta Mohammad were involved in capturing Mazar-i-Sharif.

“After the eradication of the Taliban from this city, the military forces will leave and the (responsibility) for the security of the town will be given to a group of 300 people from various groups,” he said.

Muhaqiq also said that in case of any attempt at a new attack by the Taliban, which he claims is “no longer able to launch a counter attack ... we are completely ready.”

Mazar-i-Sharif was captured on Friday after a four-day push that saw the Northern Alliance secure control over five northern provinces.—AFP