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Mujahideen preparing for final showdown with Kabul forces
KABUL. Apr 18: Prayers for peace and cheap bread rang out from mosques across the encircled city of Kabul yesterday where Afghans walled In (car and hope for the end of 14 year, of civil war. reports Reuter
Row upon row of shops on the edge of the city were shuttered and boarded up. Streets were mostly deserted.
Rumours spread of how Mujahideen gueril las were tightening their grip around Kabul, preparing to meet government forces In a final showdown
"The mullah Is praying to God for peace and cheaper bread", said a 44-year-old shop keeper In the old bazaar surrounding the Puli Kishty mosque In central Kabul.
Bread has almost doubled In price tn recent days because of wheat shortages and fears of mass bloodshed If frantic negotiations involving the United Nations, the government and vari ous rebel groups break down.
President NaJIbulfah'i overthrow by members of his own government this week may have delighted some, but this Is far outweighed by their sense of fear.
'Of course we are afraid People are really weary of war", the shopkeeper said
Nearby beggars with limbs blown off by mines lay on rags. Children cried for alms in the crowded grounds of the mosque.
Wc have no work, no money What Is our future? We'fe afraid.' said Karim, a young unemployed man on hta way to Friday prayers
"Najibullah never kept his promises." a Sikh stallholder said
Sandbags were plied beside a white marble statue of a mother and child outside UNICEF offices Around the corner government troops lolled on an armoured personnel carrier, nurs-ing a machine gun
"The situation is normal inside the city," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wahid Qayoumi said.
However, the situation was rather "special" beyond the city limits, he said. No one seemed quite sure of where those limits are after a series of Mujahideen victories and defections by government forces.
Who la fighting whom was equally confusing and many Afghans listen to the British Broadcasting Corporation and Voice of America to try to keep up with shifting alliances.
Kabul airport was manned by government officials, government soldiers and militiamen who only recently had turned against Kabul to Join the rebels. •
Carrying aubmachlne-guns and shoulder rockets and wearing traditional baggy trousers and turbans, the militiamen looked incongru-ous beside soldiers tn neat green uniforms.
Both sides said the militiamen were under the orders of militia commander general Rashid Dostum, who last month abandoned Najibullah and cast In hla lot with the Mujahideen guerillas In the northern city of Mazar-l-Sharlf.
With Najibullah , fall. Dostum apparently feel, able to mend fences with the Kabul gov eminent.
Reporters who drove south out of Kabul re ported scattered shelling, believed to be com Ing from government forces and Intended as a warning lo the Islamic fundamentalist. Hezb-I-Islaml guerillas who are approaching Kabul.
The shelling could be heard in the distance — at least by some
"Booms ? No I haven’t heard any,"Mid a taxi driver who said he stopped listening years ago