ISLAMABAD (Islaweb & News Agencies) - Several thousand armed Pakistani tribesmen set out to cross into Afghanistan on Saturday to help the Taliban militia which is under U.S. attack, Islamic party officials said.Witnesses said buses, wagons, pick-up trucks and vehicles with Muslim activists armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket launchers left for Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. (Read photo caption below)
Party officials said the group was led by firebrand Islamic party head Sufi Mohammad who has called for jihad, or a holy struggle, against the United States.
A Pakistani security official told Reuters from the Bajuar area bordering Afghanistan that the group of about 4,500 men had not crossed into Afghanistan yet, but had set up a camp for the night in a village 12 km (eight miles) short of the border.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said the group planned to head toward the border on Sunday. The government may try to stop them.
Qazi Ehsanullah, spokesman for the Tehrik Nifaze Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) movement, told Reuters by telephone from the village of Maidan in Malakand district that Sufi Mohammad led the first convoy of mujahideen.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Pakistani men, young and old, armed with assault rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers sit atop vehicles as more than 5,000 people roll out of the northeastern Pakistan village of Temergarah Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001, bound for the Afghan frontier vowing to fight a holy war against the United States. (AP Photo/Riaz Khan)
- Oct 27 9:00 AM ET