JanKhandeAfghan

distinct aura bawaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa so for brown Pak like yourself who is easily distinguish among Pashtons--- Afghan "refugees" (Afghans people in Peshtonkhawa are internal displace not refugees since the Durand treaty expired long ago and legally and morally Balochistan and Pashtonwakha are part of Afghanistan!) feel deferent? ahahah Elaborate more, in what way Afghans refugees have distinct aura?




Daaa no worries you might get it in a week or two On serious note, that links was to show that Afghans(Pashtons) are one people, there is no difference between an Afghan from Peshawar an Afghan from Kabul or ANY OTHER PLACE! Also that Afghan, Pathan and Pakhton means the same and are used interchangeably to mean the same people!





Afghanistan is the country's name and the people are called Afghanistani! Historically from thousands of years these people have been living side by side and were part of one kingdom or empire! Afghan means only Pashtons, and non-pashtons people of Afghanistan are called Afghanistani. Just like in India----muslim are called Hinduistani and Hindus are simply Hindu!
Indeed it was only recently after soviet defeat which left Afghanistan vulnerable and weak some groups were created by our neighbors to gain influences. Mind you that no group or party in Afghanistan what’s so ever wants or demands the division of Afghanistan unlike any country in region! Afghanistan today is like a injured lion which rats like Pakistan, Iran and Uzbekistan trying to hurt! Thanks god for America soon we will be able to stand by our feet and then may god save you brown-butted ***** from vengeance of Afghans!


Wahabbi nope this was stated by greats Afghan secular nationalist Khan Abdul Ghafaar Khan----Gandi of frontier! Indeed and mark my words it will be much better if Pashtons(Afghans) kick all you brown-butted ***** to east side of Attack river and save our country, our culture, and our identity from barbaric **** “Islam” ------Dewbandi and Wahadi dogmas!

Aryan

Most of the "soldiers" killed were actually paramilitary FC, i.e Pathans.

And millions of your pashtun wahabi warriors have been killed in bombing raids by America. Americans used thermobaric bombs in caves known to be hideouts by your heros. They kill by creating a huge pressure wave which effectively suffocates them by sucking the air out of the lungs of victims. Imagine what your holy Islamic warriors had to go through before their last moments in life, do you think they squealed for jihad then?

In Wana? Well tribal leaders have offered some limited support to Pakistani forces, including launching a few search missions for the terrorists themselves. Not that I trust them of course. Tribal leaders are from the same school of thought. They will be bypassed and the poeple will be given a decent education as well as other necessities they have been deprived of.

Then tell me, why do you Afghans stay in Pakistani refugee camps? You certainly aren't welcome there, the local population hate you. And don't say what I'm saying is untrue because it is standard procedure when assisting Afghan refugee camps to contribute an equal amount to the local Pathan population. Its to prevent anti Afghan rioting there which has happened in the past.

I can think of hundreds of examples of Pathan (not Paston as you call them) pledging loyalty to Pakistan, even fighting and dying for our nation. We've had Pathan presidents, prime ministers and are found throughout the military and armed forces.

We Kashmiris weren't given that choice, how do you think we feel?

Well Pathans of Pakistan are very different to the Pathans of Afghanistan, for one they are less extremist and less intolerant.

I don't recognise the Durand line either, I think all Pathan areas of Afghanistan belong to Pakistan. As Pakistan is a more stable nation and has an organised army, we have a stronger claim to it than that so-called government in Afghanistan. It would be beneficial to the Pashtoon, they would benefit from Musharraf's moderate enlightenment vision, and perhaps become civilised human beings like what we see on our side of the border.

Also, the minority Dari speaking communities would be spared of the centuries of persecution they have been going through under Iranian protection.

Aryan

An Afghan calling a Kashmiri brown? Now I've heard everything... Post a picture and I'll do the same, we'll see who is more "brown".
(As if anyone in the region didn't have brown skin, but I'll play along with your little game)

Well yes it has expired, but how are you going to challenge it? You don't have an army, you don't have an economy, all your neighbours have reasons to see the end of you. All you have is opium and rugs. Pakistan on the other hand has an army, and friends in the region. We are also an ally of America and the west .

What is to stop Pakistan and a nationalist post-Mullah Iran to occupy Afghanistan and split it between us? No one is going to oppose us, and if manage to cause peace in the region, they would support it.

Baloch separatists don't want anything to do with Afghanistan. They want a nation of their own, carved out of Iranian, Pakistani and Afghan territory. Don't pretend you Pushtoons have anything to do with them.

Well all the tell tale signs of a malnourished refugee. I'm not condoning it in any way, I actually feel sorry for them. But they belong in their own country, Afghanistan.

Afghan is not the same as Pashton, I object to that. Afghan is nationality and Pashton is an ethnic group. Referring to Pashtons as Afghan was exlusively a Pakistani/British Indian usage, to classify an ethnic group within the regional context. The same as how Balochis are sometimes referred to as Irani.

Never heard of an Afghan calling themselves "Afghanistani", its always Afghan. Here:

Nationality:
noun: Afghan(s)
adjective: Afghan
CIA factbook

Where did you pull that from? Indians are called Indian, muslim or hindu.
Hindustani is a language in India, spoke by Hindus and muslims. You have no clue what you are talking about.

Did you ever stop to think you could have been responsible for your own problems? Blaming everyone but yourself. Russia walked in and tried to civilise you, they set up schools for women began contruction projects, but your illiterate population wanted nothing to do with it! Its easy playing the blame game. And if it wasn't for American and Pakistani help, you would be speaking russian.

So now all of a sudden you like America? What about all that holy wahabbi Jihad talk? Exporting opium to the infidels, because they export it to the muslim nations?

He was a traitor, a communist and an enemy of Pakistan. He had no support here, only the Pushtos of Afghanistan liked him.

Indeed and mark my words it will be much better if Pashtons(Afghans) kick all you brown-butted ***** to east side of Attack river and save our country, our culture, Yes evil Pakistani Islam, allowing women to drive and not wear tents. Must be classified as a form of genocide.

JanKhandeAfghan

The reason why Kashmirs look some light comparing to other Indian subcontinent is cause it was part of Afghanistan and it was only 150 years ago that it become part of British rule. Also during the fight against Indian, Pakistan encourage more then half million Pashtons----those that had no land and work----to Kashmir that is why Paksitan got a part of Kashmir!
As for as brown ****, it is a well known facts----just see your face in mirror you will know what I am talking about.
Yeek lets talk race! Afghans are part if Mediterranean race which in itself is subrace of CAUCASOID:

http://www.angeltowns.com/members/ra.../subraces.html


”Irano-Afghan: The long-faced, high-headed, hook-nosed type, usually of tall stature, which forms the principal element in the population of Iran, Afghanistan, and the Turkoman country, and which is also present in Palestine, parts of Arabia, and North Africa. It is probably related to the old Corded type of the Neolithic and Bronze Age.”

While ***** including Kashmirs (with exception of Afghans---Pashtons and Balouchs) are Dravidian!

Here is a typical photo of Pakis




[IMG]
http://www.persecution.org/concern/2002/08/p2yaqoobs-family.jpg[/IMG]










Wait and see, just wait and see the real show have not yet started, mind you when Afghanistan army were marching on sub-continent your forefathers were wearing those diapers------by he way why in this wild world you all wear Afghan(Pashtons) cloth? I swear the reason I do not wear my own Piran Tonban is all brown ****, and camel arabs now a days wear my traditional cloths.
Also ally of America and west? With ally like Pakistan who needs an enemy? Sooner or later America and the west will see the real face of you, mind you the reason why America is allying with Pakistan is caz there is no alternative, Iran is ruled by Mullahs and central Asia by those ex-commies. Indeed do you think America will this easily let go of your nuclear weapon profiling? Selling to Libya, Iran and north Korea and blaming it all in a stupid corrupt scientist Dr Qadir Khan? Indeed once we have a strong government in Afghanistan, what will prevent us from attacking Pakistan----we don’t even need to do that, all we need is to encourage Baloch, Pashton and Sindis, and on other hand allow India to take care of Panjab. Indeed sooner you guys won’t be able to keep with much larger and much mightier India and since other then religion you ***** (with exception of Pashton and Balouchs) have everything in common with Indians we will see a reunification of Panjab and Sind with India and Pashtonistan and Balochistan with Afghanistan . We and Indians will live side by side in peace as a neighbor like historically used too. We Pashtons never had any beef with Hindus and we do not hate them like ***** does, Indian is a traditional ally of Afghanistan.

Note: If you are still not satisfied with facts above which sooner or later will be implemented------ then be all means bring it on, you and wossy Iranians both at the same time, I will make sure to wait for ***** cowards with my AK 47! It will indeed be the happiest day of my life to see cowards brown ***** finally grown a dick and doing their fight themselves!

[]


Baloch and Pashtons belong to same race----irano-Afghan--- Mediterranean!More then 45% of population of Balochistan are Pashtons, even the city Quatta was given to Balochs as a dowry for a Balochi princesses who married an Afghan princes in 17 century! Read your history, but today ***** are trying to fake history and kill afghan cultural influences, this is the reason why Kandhari Bazaar was renamed as Qahad Bazaar(after British agent Ali Jenah a known Parsi) and Kabuli Bazaar is renamed as Leqat ali Bazaar!




[
First of all you should realize that NWFP, and Balochistan are their country! Legally, morally, historically and culturally! Second you know I never seen a “malnourished” Afghan in my whole life, not even after all this hardship we Afghans have been throw! I saw the footage of Afghan and Afghanistan after 9/11 being broadcast here in States twenty four seven but never I seen a malnourished child or adult! All seemed tall, fair skinned, and surprisingly happy even in miseries!



I have already proven to you without any reasonable doubt that Afghan and Pashtons means the same people.
And here iam restating the proof!
http://www.bartleby.com/65/pa/Pashto.html

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

Pashto


(psh´t) (KEY) , Pushtu (–t) (KEY) , or Afghan, language belonging to the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. See Indo-Iranian languages.



http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0580192.html

Pa•than

Pronunciation: (pu-tän', put-hän'), [key]
—n.
1. Afghan (def. 1).
2. an Afghan dwelling in India.



Pash•to

Pronunciation: (push'tO), [key]
—n.
an Indo-European, Iranian language that is the official language of Afghanistan and the chief vernacular of the eastern part of the nation. Also,Pushtu,Pushto.Also called Afghan, Afghani.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushtu_language








Funny that is a brown sack of sh*T **** who has No identity, lack culture and history and other then religion have no reason to be a country talking about civilization. Indeed Pakistani and civilization do not go together---an oxymoron term! Plus look who is talling aobut literacy----punk Pakistan and Afghanistan even after twenty five years of fighting in Afghaistan have the same percentage of literacy rate!
Afghanistan
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
female: 21% (1999 est.)
total population: 36%
male: 51%

Pakistan

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 45.7%
male: 59.8%
female: 30.6% (2003 est.)

Don’t see much deference, and mind you the reason Pakistan literacy is 45 percent is because of the money and Afghans teachers that purred in Pakistan as refugee. There was even an article which stated that Afghan refugees give cultureless ***** culture. Also Soviet had no plan to attack Afghanistan the only reason they did was to reach the warm waters of Indian ocean---Pakistan so be thankful for two million brave Afghans getting killed to prevent Soviets to enter your country. Since you ***** are known cowards, got your ass wiped three times by a much smaller country India(comparing to Soviet) it doesn’t a rocket scientist to predict what will happen when soviet invaded Pakistan. Also thanks Soviet invasion for your country pocketing billions of dollars in aid giving to Afghan refugee, billions of dollars worth in weapon and other assistance which you guys received in the name of Afghanistan.


I do not like or hate America, my liking or hating of America depends on America's action towards my country, today America is our number one ally and helping us to take care of Pakistanis syndrome in shape Arabs, and Taliban---who are a genially **** ideology---dewabandi which has its base in Pakistan, since Pakistan has no other identity other then religion! America has an Afghan-American as ambassador in Afghanistan, have military presence in Afghanistan and help us go after **** rats in shape of Talibans so I really like the good Americans are doing and I wish them all the best! Iam also thankful of Mr Bush, for he has been a stronge supporter of Afghan and Afghanistan and will vote for him in coming election since he deserves to win!


First of all it is Pashtons not Pashto, you can also use Afghan since it means the same thing. Pashto is our language! Second he was known as king of Pashtonkhawa and had extrodnarlly high support in Pashonistan but sadly his enemy was in shape of British and their agent Ali Jenah, an alcoholic punk trick him to boycott the election which had only two choice---Pakistan or India! And the rest is history!

Evil **** Islam is Dewbandi, evil **** Islam is Taliban---mind you Taliban were “educated” in **** Madrass, never in Afghanistan’s 5000 history and 1400 Islamic history ever a movement preached the bs and **** hot-airs that Taliban were! The **** Islam is betrayal, the **** Islam is to lock women in home, the **** Islam is to prevent education for girls, the **** Islam is rape, violence, distraction and killing. Ever wonder where the Taliban learn to killed SHia Hazaras? You guess it right in **** Madrass and **** society where Shai and Sunis kill each other like dogs!
Sadly Afghan village people have been infected with **** disease the filth known as Dewbandi Islam and the lack of culture and identity as ****!
Why don’t you tell us what identity you as a **** have other then being Muslim? Who is a Paki? Don’t you think the idea of Pakistan as a separate home for Indian’s Muslims have failed miserably today since there is more Muslim in India then in Pakistan?

These are **** Islam, read it, and sadly Afghan refugees special those village people have been infected by **** “islam” diseases which we saw in shape of “Mujahdeen” and Taliban!

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapc...istan.justice/

http://web.amnesty.org/web/wire.nsf/July2004/Pakistan

http://english.pravda.ru/fun/2002/07/02/31654.html

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1835/

http://www.womensenews.org/article.c...ontext/archive
http://www.equityfeminism.com/articles/2002/000081.html

““According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, every two hours a woman is raped in Pakistan and every eight hours a woman is subjected to gang rape. The frequency of rape is thought to be much higher but many rapes remain unreported due to a combination of social taboos, discriminatory laws and victimization by the police. Meanwhile, Pakistani law is punishing victims of rape as though they were criminals while the perpetrators go free.”




You see the problem is that you guys lack culture, history and identity that is the reason you guys support terrosim in region! Half of you talk English with tick accent that is and pretend to be British---while your brown skin really give you out, other half pretend to be Arab and talk about Islam while you guys are the most an-islamic and unethical people in face of planet. Like this American write one wrote “A Pakistani will sell his mother for you for 20 dollars.” Your country is second most curropt nation in face of planet and your people have no ethics and morality.

JanKhandeAfghan

[quote=Aryan] B ****! Pashton soilder refuse to fight their fellow Pashton.
I happen to bring facts while you talk typical **** hot-air!

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1108831/posts

"The way in which Pashtun tribals dealt with hostages is also a reflection of this split. The tribals that held Pashtun paramilitary force members hostage are said to have treated them with respect, later releasing them after a deal with Pakistani authorities. However, the soldiers that were of Punjab descent were killed and their bodies mutilated."
This really shows the royality of Pashton to Panjabi and Pakistan!



A million Pashton been killed? o boy were you hear this from some **** publication? The number of civilian Afghan killed during Bombing of US is estimated to be around 3-4 thousands! Which is indeed a cheap prize for Afghans to pay to get ride of filthy **** "Islam"!


B **** agian, even today **** army is unable to leave their camps! Mind you that People of area not the Taliban or Arabs have raised aganist the *****! Which again proves one thing----Pashtons aversion of Pakistan!



Only 30 to 40 % of Afghan "refugees" live in camp, these camps were establish to be a recruiting ground for CIA for their fight against soviets! While the rest live in cities, villages and towns as a ordinary Pashtons! Also you need to realize that not all people of Pashtonistan are Pashtons, there are minority like Hinko, Berawis Panjabis and… these people see Afghans as further marginizing them and making them more minority since Afghans will add to percentage of Pashtons in Pashonistan and make Pashtons an absolute majority!




We are talking about Afghan(Pashton) majoirty not some wana be Pashton who claim to be Pashton but could not speak a word of Pashto and have noting as Pashton in him. Want me to give you examples?


Who give a rat about Kashmirs? Kashmirs has always been part of India, no matter if it was ruled by Muslim, Hindu or British! On other hand never before British take over Pashtonistan was part of India! It is an historical fact! Kashmirs culture is Indian, language is part of Indo-Aryan and race is Indian. While Pashton culture, and language is Indo-Iranian and race is Irano-Afghan

A lame try differentiate between Afghans(Pashtons)! Funny indeed! Mind you that the extremist you are talking about has its roots in Pakistan, the Madrass, the Dewbandi and Wahabi sh*Ts----all Talibans were product of **** madrass not the other way around!!

IDo you think we Afghans are that inferior to accept being part of a cultureless, corrupt, filthy with no identity country like Pakistan and allow an Indian in shape of Besharaaf to rule us? Before trying to becoming civilized i suggest you ***** become a human first!
also you are misestimating the royalty of non-pashtons people of Afghanistan to Afghanistan--------not having any separatist movement after twenty six years of war really shows how royal and connected these people are to their country--Afghanistan



here is the proof of you scam bag filthy terroist *****!


Taliban suspect traces Pakistan link
Carlotta Gall/NYT The New York Times
Wednesday, August 4, 2004





See more of the world that matters - click here for home delivery of the International Herald Tribune.
< < Back to Start of Article
KABUL For months Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that, even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.
.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured while fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
.
The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi who is being held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed.
.
Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque in Pakistan - by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links - his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his being dispatched, with several other Pakistanis, to Afghanistan.
.
He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they had gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders and said they had high-level support from within the establishment.
.
He said he had been recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan in January 2002. Under its new name it is functioning, if more discreetly, and its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, moves around freely.
.
Khalil has been involved in recruiting and training militants since the 1980s. In 1998, U.S. planes bombed his training camp in Afghanistan when they were targeting Osama bin Laden after the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bombing killed a number of Pakistanis, and Khalil at the time vowed to take revenge against America for the attack.
.
Sohail is not the first Pakistani to be captured fighting alongside the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan over the past two years. On at least one occasion, Pakistanis who were captured in a joint U.S.-$ Afghan military operation last year were handed back to Pakistan. But he is the first to be made available for an interview by the Afghan government. Intelligence officials said they had found on him a Jamiat-ul-Ansar membership card and a list of phone numbers of high-level party officials.
.
A Pakistani official interviewed recently described Sohail as a singular case and denied that Pakistani militants were showing up in Afghanistan.
.
The Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said he thought Jamiat-ul-Ansar and its network had been dismantled. "There is no ambiguity in our policy," he said. "The government does not sponsor, nor create, nor is aware of training camps. If they were aware of any, they would go and dismantle them."
.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, has stated publicly that Pakistan has not done nearly enough to stop the Taliban and other militants from using Pakistan's border areas as operational and recruiting bases. In a speech in Washington in April, he warned that, if Pakistan did not do the job on its side of the border, U.S. forces would have to do the job themselves. A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity in an interview last month in Kabul said, "When you talk about Taliban, it's like fish in a barrel in Pakistan. They train, they rest there. They get support."
.
Western diplomats in Kabul and Pakistani political analysts have said that Pakistan has continued to allow the Taliban to operate to retain influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan supported the Taliban in the 1990s as a way to create an area where Pakistani forces could retreat to the west if war erupted with the country's longtime rival and neighbor to the east, India. Pakistan has also long tried to maintain influence over Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, because of its wariness of its own Pashtun minority in the border areas.
.
Sohail was probably chosen to fight in Afghanistan because he is a Pashtun, the dominant group in the Taliban. Born in Swat, near the Afghan border, he grew up in Karachi, left school at 15 and went to work in a confectionery shop.
.
"I was going to the mosque every Thursday, and they were saying you should go and do jihad," he said. "In Palestine, Chechnya, Cuba, France and a lot of places all over the world, they are mistreating Muslims. So I decided to do it and got training for one month."
.
He traveled with a group of 15 others from his mosque to a training camp near Mansehra, north of Islamabad. It was a remote place, in the mountains with lots of trees, he said. He received explosives and weapons training for one month there, he said.
.
After their training in Mansehra, Sohail and his group went to Islamabad and met Khalil, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Ansar, at his headquarters. Three months later, Khalil went to speak at their mosque and called the group up to fight, Sohail said. "He said, 'Go and fight the Americans.'"
.
They went to the Pakistani border town of Quetta, and then Sohail set off with four other fighters. They crossed the main border and drove to the city of Kandahar. They went to a designated hotel and, in a room, found a bag with weapons. The next day they headed to a mountain base near the town of Panjwai, not far west of Kandahar, where they joined about 50 fighters and rapidly became involved in combat operations themselves.
.
Sohail's account becomes vague after that. He said he fought for only one night and returned to Pakistan. Sent back into Afghanistan to gather information about casualties, he approached some Afghan police, thinking they were Taliban. They arrested him.
.
He is accused of taking part in an attack on the Panjwai District center in April, in which a police officer and two aid workers were killed, security officials said.
.
Sohail has received a 20-year sentence from a judge in Kabul. His appeal is in progress."I'm very sad," he said mournfully. "The jihad is over for me."
.
But he showed flashes of fanaticism, too. "I wish I was a prisoner of the Americans. Then I could die a martyr at their hands, or kill myself," he said.
.
KABUL For months Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that, even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.
.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured while fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
.
The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi who is being held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed.
.
Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque in Pakistan - by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links - his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his being dispatched, with several other Pakistanis, to Afghanistan.
.
He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they had gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders and said they had high-level support from within the establishment.
.
He said he had been recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan in January 2002. Under its new name it is functioning, if more discreetly, and its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, moves around freely.
.
Khalil has been involved in recruiting and training militants since the 1980s. In 1998, U.S. planes bombed his training camp in Afghanistan when they were targeting Osama bin Laden after the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bombing killed a number of Pakistanis, and Khalil at the time vowed to take revenge against America for the attack.
.
Sohail is not the first Pakistani to be captured fighting alongside the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan over the past two years. On at least one occasion, Pakistanis who were captured in a joint U.S.-$ Afghan military operation last year were handed back to Pakistan. But he is the first to be made available for an interview by the Afghan government. Intelligence officials said they had found on him a Jamiat-ul-Ansar membership card and a list of phone numbers of high-level party officials.
.
A Pakistani official interviewed recently described Sohail as a singular case and denied that Pakistani militants were showing up in Afghanistan.
.
The Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said he thought Jamiat-ul-Ansar and its network had been dismantled. "There is no ambiguity in our policy," he said. "The government does not sponsor, nor create, nor is aware of training camps. If they were aware of any, they would go and dismantle them."
.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, has stated publicly that Pakistan has not done nearly enough to stop the Taliban and other militants from using Pakistan's border areas as operational and recruiting bases. In a speech in Washington in April, he warned that, if Pakistan did not do the job on its side of the border, U.S. forces would have to do the job themselves. A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity in an interview last month in Kabul said, "When you talk about Taliban, it's like fish in a barrel in Pakistan. They train, they rest there. They get support."
.
Western diplomats in Kabul and Pakistani political analysts have said that Pakistan has continued to allow the Taliban to operate to retain influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan supported the Taliban in the 1990s as a way to create an area where Pakistani forces could retreat to the west if war erupted with the country's longtime rival and neighbor to the east, India. Pakistan has also long tried to maintain influence over Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, because of its wariness of its own Pashtun minority in the border areas.
.
Sohail was probably chosen to fight in Afghanistan because he is a Pashtun, the dominant group in the Taliban. Born in Swat, near the Afghan border, he grew up in Karachi, left school at 15 and went to work in a confectionery shop.
.
"I was going to the mosque every Thursday, and they were saying you should go and do jihad," he said. "In Palestine, Chechnya, Cuba, France and a lot of places all over the world, they are mistreating Muslims. So I decided to do it and got training for one month."
.
He traveled with a group of 15 others from his mosque to a training camp near Mansehra, north of Islamabad. It was a remote place, in the mountains with lots of trees, he said. He received explosives and weapons training for one month there, he said.
.
After their training in Mansehra, Sohail and his group went to Islamabad and met Khalil, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Ansar, at his headquarters. Three months later, Khalil went to speak at their mosque and called the group up to fight, Sohail said. "He said, 'Go and fight the Americans.'"
.
They went to the Pakistani border town of Quetta, and then Sohail set off with four other fighters. They crossed the main border and drove to the city of Kandahar. They went to a designated hotel and, in a room, found a bag with weapons. The next day they headed to a mountain base near the town of Panjwai, not far west of Kandahar, where they joined about 50 fighters and rapidly became involved in combat operations themselves.
.
Sohail's account becomes vague after that. He said he fought for only one night and returned to Pakistan. Sent back into Afghanistan to gather information about casualties, he approached some Afghan police, thinking they were Taliban. They arrested him.
.
He is accused of taking part in an attack on the Panjwai District center in April, in which a police officer and two aid workers were killed, security officials said.
.
Sohail has received a 20-year sentence from a judge in Kabul. His appeal is in progress."I'm very sad," he said mournfully. "The jihad is over for me."
.
But he showed flashes of fanaticism, too. "I wish I was a prisoner of the Americans. Then I could die a martyr at their hands, or kill myself," he said.
.
KABUL For months Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that, even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.
.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured while fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
.
The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi who is being held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed.
.
Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque in Pakistan - by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links - his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his being dispatched, with several other Pakistanis, to Afghanistan.
.
He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they had gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders and said they had high-level support from within the establishment.
.
He said he had been recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was KABUL For months Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that, even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.
.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured while fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
.
The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi who is being held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed.
.
Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque in Pakistan - by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links - his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his being dispatched, with several other Pakistanis, to Afghanistan.
.
He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they had gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders and said they had high-level support from within the establishment.
.
He said he had been recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan in January 2002. Under its new name it is functioning, if more discreetly, and its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, moves around freely.
.
Khalil has been involved in recruiting and training militants since the 1980s. In 1998, U.S. planes bombed his training camp in Afghanistan when they were targeting Osama bin Laden after the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bombing killed a number of Pakistanis, and Khalil at the time vowed to take revenge against America for the attack.
.
Sohail is not the first Pakistani to be captured fighting alongside the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan over the past two years. On at least one occasion, Pakistanis who were captured in a joint U.S.-$ Afghan military operation last year were handed back to Pakistan. But he is the first to be made available for an interview by the Afghan government. Intelligence officials said they had found on him a Jamiat-ul-Ansar membership card and a list of phone numbers of high-level party officials.
.
A Pakistani official interviewed recently described Sohail as a singular case and denied that Pakistani militants were showing up in Afghanistan.
.
The Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said he thought Jamiat-ul-Ansar and its network had been dismantled. "There is no ambiguity in our policy," he said. "The government does not sponsor, nor create, nor is aware of training camps. If they were aware of any, they would go and dismantle them."
.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, has stated publicly that Pakistan has not done nearly enough to stop the Taliban and other militants from using Pakistan's border areas as operational and recruiting bases. In a speech in Washington in April, he warned that, if Pakistan did not do the job on its side of the border, U.S. forces would have to do the job themselves. A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity in an interview last month in Kabul said, "When you talk about Taliban, it's like fish in a barrel in Pakistan. They train, they rest there. They get support."
.
Western diplomats in Kabul and Pakistani political analysts have said that Pakistan has continued to allow the Taliban to operate to retain influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan supported the Taliban in the 1990s as a way to create an area where Pakistani forces could retreat to the west if war erupted with the country's longtime rival and neighbor to the east, India. Pakistan has also long tried to maintain influence over Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, because of its wariness of its own Pashtun minority in the border areas.
.
Sohail was probably chosen to fight in Afghanistan because he is a Pashtun, the dominant group in the Taliban. Born in Swat, near the Afghan border, he grew up in Karachi, left school at 15 and went to work in a confectionery shop.
.
"I was going to the mosque every Thursday, and they were saying you should go and do jihad," he said. "In Palestine, Chechnya, Cuba, France and a lot of places all over the world, they are mistreating Muslims. So I decided to do it and got training for one month."
.
He traveled with a group of 15 others from his mosque to a training camp near Mansehra, north of Islamabad. It was a remote place, in the mountains with lots of trees, he said. He received explosives and weapons training for one month there, he said.
.
After their training in Mansehra, Sohail and his group went to Islamabad and met Khalil, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Ansar, at his headquarters. Three months later, Khalil went to speak at their mosque and called the group up to fight, Sohail said. "He said, 'Go and fight the Americans.'"
.
They went to the Pakistani border town of Quetta, and then Sohail set off with four other fighters. They crossed the main border and drove to the city of Kandahar. They went to a designated hotel and, in a room, found a bag with weapons. The next day they headed to a mountain base near the town of Panjwai, not far west of Kandahar, where they joined about 50 fighters and rapidly became involved in combat operations themselves.
.
Sohail's account becomes vague after that. He said he fought for only one night and returned to Pakistan. Sent back into Afghanistan to gather information about casualties, he approached some Afghan police, thinking they were Taliban. They arrested him.
.
He is accused of taking part in an attack on the Panjwai District center in April, in which a police officer and two aid workers were killed, security officials said.
.
Sohail has received a 20-year sentence from a judge in Kabul. His appeal is in progress."I'm very sad," he said mournfully. "The jihad is over for me."
.
But he showed flashes of fanaticism, too. "I wish I was a prisoner of the Americans. Then I could die a martyr at their hands, or kill myself," he said.
.
KABUL For months Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that, even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.
.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured while fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
.
The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi who is being held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed.
.
Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque in Pakistan - by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links - his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his being dispatched, with several other Pakistanis, to Afghanistan.
.
He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they had gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders and said they had high-level support from within the establishment.
.
He said he had been recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan in January 2002. Under its new name it is functioning, if more discreetly, and its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, moves around freely.
.
Khalil has been involved in recruiting and training militants since the 1980s. In 1998, U.S. planes bombed his training camp in Afghanistan when they were targeting Osama bin Laden after the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bombing killed a number of Pakistanis, and Khalil at the time vowed to take revenge against America for the attack.
.
Sohail is not the first Pakistani to be captured fighting alongside the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan over the past two years. On at least one occasion, Pakistanis who were captured in a joint U.S.-$ Afghan military operation last year were handed back to Pakistan. But he is the first to be made available for an interview by the Afghan government. Intelligence officials said they had found on him a Jamiat-ul-Ansar membership card and a list of phone numbers of high-level party officials.
.
A Pakistani official interviewed recently described Sohail as a singular case and denied that Pakistani militants were showing up in Afghanistan.
.
The Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said he thought Jamiat-ul-Ansar and its network had been dismantled. "There is no ambiguity in our policy," he said. "The government does not sponsor, nor create, nor is aware of training camps. If they were aware of any, they would go and dismantle them."
.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, has stated publicly that Pakistan has not done nearly enough to stop the Taliban and other militants from using Pakistan's border areas as operational and recruiting bases. In a speech in Washington in April, he warned that, if Pakistan did not do the job on its side of the border, U.S. forces would have to do the job themselves. A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity in an interview last month in Kabul said, "When you talk about Taliban, it's like fish in a barrel in Pakistan. They train, they rest there. They get support."
.
Western diplomats in Kabul and Pakistani political analysts have said that Pakistan has continued to allow the Taliban to operate to retain influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan supported the Taliban in the 1990s as a way to create an area where Pakistani forces could retreat to the west if war erupted with the country's longtime rival and neighbor to the east, India. Pakistan has also long tried to maintain influence over Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, because of its wariness of its own Pashtun minority in the border areas.
.
Sohail was probably chosen to fight in Afghanistan because he is a Pashtun, the dominant group in the Taliban. Born in Swat, near the Afghan border, he grew up in Karachi, left school at 15 and went to work in a confectionery shop.
.
"I was going to the mosque every Thursday, and they were saying you should go and do jihad," he said. "In Palestine, Chechnya, Cuba, France and a lot of places all over the world, they are mistreating Muslims. So I decided to do it and got training for one month."
.
He traveled with a group of 15 others from his mosque to a training camp near Mansehra, north of Islamabad. It was a remote place, in the mountains with lots of trees, he said. He received explosives and weapons training for one month there, he said.
.
After their training in Mansehra, Sohail and his group went to Islamabad and met Khalil, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Ansar, at his headquarters. Three months later, Khalil went to speak at their mosque and called the group up to fight, Sohail said. "He said, 'Go and fight the Americans.'"
.
They went to the Pakistani border town of Quetta, and then Sohail set off with four other fighters. They crossed the main border and drove to the city of Kandahar. They went to a designated hotel and, in a room, found a bag with weapons. The next day they headed to a mountain base near the town of Panjwai, not far west of Kandahar, where they joined about 50 fighters and rapidly became involved in combat operations themselves.
.
Sohail's account becomes vague after that. He said he fought for only one night and returned to Pakistan. Sent back into Afghanistan to gather information about casualties, he approached some Afghan police, thinking they were Taliban. They arrested him.
.
He is accused of taking part in an attack on the Panjwai District center in April, in which a police officer and two aid workers were killed, security officials said.
.
Sohail has received a 20-year sentence from a judge in Kabul. His appeal is in progress."I'm very sad," he said mournfully. "The jihad is over for me."
.
But he showed flashes of fanaticism, too. "I wish I was a prisoner of the Americans. Then I could die a martyr at their hands, or kill myself," he said.
.
KABUL For months Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that, even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.
.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured while fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
.
The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi who is being held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed.
.
Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque in Pakistan - by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links - his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his being dispatched, with several other Pakistanis, to Afghanistan.
.
He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they had gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders and said they had high-level support from within the establishment.
.
He said he had been recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan in January 2002. Under its new name it is functioning, if more discreetly, and its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, moves around freely.
.
Khalil has been involved in recruiting and training militants since the 1980s. In 1998, U.S. planes bombed his training camp in Afghanistan when they were targeting Osama bin Laden after the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bombing killed a number of Pakistanis, and Khalil at the time vowed to take revenge against America for the attack.
.
Sohail is not the first Pakistani to be captured fighting alongside the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan over the past two years. On at least one occasion, Pakistanis who were captured in a joint U.S.-$ Afghan military operation last year were handed back to Pakistan. But he is the first to be made available for an interview by the Afghan government. Intelligence officials said they had found on him a Jamiat-ul-Ansar membership card and a list of phone numbers of high-level party officials.
.
A Pakistani official interviewed recently described Sohail as a singular case and denied that Pakistani militants were showing up in Afghanistan.
.
The Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said he thought Jamiat-ul-Ansar and its network had been dismantled. "There is no ambiguity in our policy," he said. "The government does not sponsor, nor create, nor is aware of training camps. If they were aware of any, they would go and dismantle them."
.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, has stated publicly that Pakistan has not done nearly enough to stop the Taliban and other militants from using Pakistan's border areas as operational and recruiting bases. In a speech in Washington in April, he warned that, if Pakistan did not do the job on its side of the border, U.S. forces would have to do the job themselves. A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity in an interview last month in Kabul said, "When you talk about Taliban, it's like fish in a barrel in Pakistan. They train, they rest there. They get support."
.
Western diplomats in Kabul and Pakistani political analysts have said that Pakistan has continued to allow the Taliban to operate to retain influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan supported the Taliban in the 1990s as a way to create an area where Pakistani forces could retreat to the west if war erupted with the country's longtime rival and neighbor to the east, India. Pakistan has also long tried to maintain influence over Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, because of its wariness of its own Pashtun minority in the border areas.
.
Sohail was probably chosen to fight in Afghanistan because he is a Pashtun, the dominant group in the Taliban. Born in Swat, near the Afghan border, he grew up in Karachi, left school at 15 and went to work in a confectionery shop.
.
"I was going to the mosque every Thursday, and they were saying you should go and do jihad," he said. "In Palestine, Chechnya, Cuba, France and a lot of places all over the world, they are mistreating Muslims. So I decided to do it and got training for one month."
.
He traveled with a group of 15 others from his mosque to a training camp near Mansehra, north of Islamabad. It was a remote place, in the mountains with lots of trees, he said. He received explosives and weapons training for one month there, he said.
.
After their training in Mansehra, Sohail and his group went to Islamabad and met Khalil, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Ansar, at his headquarters. Three months later, Khalil went to speak at their mosque and called the group up to fight, Sohail said. "He said, 'Go and fight the Americans.'"
.
They went to the Pakistani border town of Quetta, and then Sohail set off with four other fighters. They crossed the main border and drove to the city of Kandahar. They went to a designated hotel and, in a room, found a bag with weapons. The next day they headed to a mountain base near the town of Panjwai, not far west of Kandahar, where they joined about 50 fighters and rapidly became involved in combat operations themselves.
.
Sohail's account becomes vague after that. He said he fought for only one night and returned to Pakistan. Sent back into Afghanistan to gather information about casualties, he approached some Afghan police, thinking they were Taliban. They arrested him.
.
He is accused of taking part in an attack on the Panjwai District center in April, in which a police officer and two aid workers were killed, security officials said.
.
Sohail has received a 20-year sentence from a judge in Kabul. His appeal is in progress."I'm very sad," he said mournfully. "The jihad is over for me."
.
But he showed flashes of fanaticism, too. "I wish I was a prisoner of the Americans. Then I could die a martyr at their hands, or kill myself," he said.


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KABUL For months Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that, even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.
.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured while fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
.
The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi who is being held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed.
.
Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque in Pakistan - by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links - his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his being dispatched, with several other Pakistanis, to Afghanistan.
.
He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they had gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders and said they had high-level support from within the establishment.
.
He said he had been recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan in January 2002. Under its new name it is functioning, if more discreetly, and its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, moves around freely.
.
Khalil has been involved in recruiting and training militants since the 1980s. In 1998, U.S. planes bombed his training camp in Afghanistan when they were targeting Osama bin Laden after the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bombing killed a number of Pakistanis, and Khalil at the time vowed to take revenge against America for the attack.
.
Sohail is not the first Pakistani to be captured fighting alongside the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan over the past two years. On at least one occasion, Pakistanis who were captured in a joint U.S.-$ Afghan military operation last year were handed back to Pakistan. But he is the first to be made available for an interview by the Afghan government. Intelligence officials said they had found on him a Jamiat-ul-Ansar membership card and a list of phone numbers of high-level party officials.
.
A Pakistani official interviewed recently described Sohail as a singular case and denied that Pakistani militants were showing up in Afghanistan.
.
The Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said he thought Jamiat-ul-Ansar and its network had been dismantled. "There is no ambiguity in our policy," he said. "The government does not sponsor, nor create, nor is aware of training camps. If they were aware of any, they would go and dismantle them."
.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, has stated publicly that Pakistan has not done nearly enough to stop the Taliban and other militants from using Pakistan's border areas as operational and recruiting bases. In a speech in Washington in April, he warned that, if Pakistan did not do the job on its side of the border, U.S. forces would have to do the job themselves. A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity in an interview last month in Kabul said, "When you talk about Taliban, it's like fish in a barrel in Pakistan. They train, they rest there. They get support."
.
Western diplomats in Kabul and Pakistani political analysts have said that Pakistan has continued to allow the Taliban to operate to retain influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan supported the Taliban in the 1990s as a way to create an area where Pakistani forces could retreat to the west if war erupted with the country's longtime rival and neighbor to the east, India. Pakistan has also long tried to maintain influence over Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, because of its wariness of its own Pashtun minority in the border areas.
.
Sohail was probably chosen to fight in Afghanistan because he is a Pashtun, the dominant group in the Taliban. Born in Swat, near the Afghan border, he grew up in Karachi, left school at 15 and went to work in a confectionery shop.
.
"I was going to the mosque every Thursday, and they were saying you should go and do jihad," he said. "In Palestine, Chechnya, Cuba, France and a lot of places all over the world, they are mistreating Muslims. So I decided to do it and got training for one month."
.
He traveled with a group of 15 others from his mosque to a training camp near Mansehra, north of Islamabad. It was a remote place, in the mountains with lots of trees, he said. He received explosives and weapons training for one month there, he said.
.
After their training in Mansehra, Sohail and his group went to Islamabad and met Khalil, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Ansar, at his headquarters. Three months later, Khalil went to speak at their mosque and called the group up to fight, Sohail said. "He said, 'Go and fight the Americans.'"
.
They went to the Pakistani border town of Quetta, and then Sohail set off with four other fighters. They crossed the main border and drove to the city of Kandahar. They went to a designated hotel and, in a room, found a bag with weapons. The next day they headed to a mountain base near the town of Panjwai, not far west of Kandahar, where they joined about 50 fighters and rapidly became involved in combat operations themselves.
.
Sohail's account becomes vague after that. He said he fought for only one night and returned to Pakistan. Sent back into Afghanistan to gather information about casualties, he approached some Afghan police, thinking they were Taliban. They arrested him.
.
He is accused of taking part in an attack on the Panjwai District center in April, in which a police officer and two aid workers were killed, security officials said.
.
Sohail has received a 20-year sentence from a judge in Kabul. His appeal is in progress."I'm very sad," he said mournfully. "The jihad is over for me."
.
But he showed flashes of fanaticism, too. "I wish I was a prisoner of the Americans. Then I could die a martyr at their hands, or kill myself," he said.
.
KABUL For months Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that, even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.
.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured while fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
.
The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi who is being held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed.
.
Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque in Pakistan - by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links - his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his being dispatched, with several other Pakistanis, to Afghanistan.
.
He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they had gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders and said they had high-level support from within the establishment.
.
He said he had been recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan in January 2002. Under its new name it is functioning, if more disc