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Today's Paper | April 28, 2024

Published 30 Oct, 2001 12:00am

UK Muslims are joining Taliban, say papers

LONDON, Oct 29: The British media has reported that hundreds of Muslims from Britain, some of them from Pakistani origin, have travelled to Afghanistan to fight beside the Taliban.

The reports carried by leading British newspapers claimed that “recruitment is continuing unabated”.

The ‘Evening Standard’, quoted a London-based Al-Muhajiroun Muslim group as saying that nearly 1,000 British Muslims have travelled to Afghanistan to take part in the “holy war”.

The report said that despite death of three men from Luton and one from Crawley during the American strikes on Afghanistan, “recruitment is underway”.

Many of the recruits are said to be of Pakistani origin whose parents had migrated to the UK.

The reports said that around “40 Britons in Lahore are actively recruiting British Muslims for the war in Afghanistan”.

The reports came as father of one of the Britisher killed in a Kabul air raid revealed how he had forbidden his son to join the Taliban.

Aftab Manzoor, 25, a taxi driver from Luton, was one of the four British men who were killed after travelling to Afghanistan to wage the “holy war”. All four died when the Taliban military base near Kabul was hit by a US missile.

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