Taleban's foreign militants

The Taleban's military campaign benefits from foreign help

By Afghanistan correspondent Kate Clark

Saeed Khan, from Burnley in northern England, came to Pakistan for a holiday - and ended up fighting for the Taleban.

Just three days into his stint at the frontline he was captured by opposition forces, and has been in a prison ever since.

I miss England... I miss the rain, the community, the factories, the trains, the local Asda store, everything

Saeed Khan

That is where I spoke to him - the first journalist to visit the prison. It had taken several days to get there.

It was a moment I had been waiting for for a year and a half. It has been almost impossible to cover the story of foreign militants.

Like everyone else in Kabul, I have seen plenty of foreign Taleban around the city. I have been sworn at in good English by Arabs.

The way to prison

Other foreign women have been spat at and told they were going to be killed. Afghans say the militants are just as obnoxious to them.

But there was never a hope in hell of getting an interview from someone who believes the BBC is an infidel organisation.

The Taleban deny the existence of training camps for foreigners

The only time I managed to approach one of the training camps, I was detained and interrogated and my film and audio tapes were confiscated.

Hence this trip - a flight from Pakistan to opposition-controlled Afghanistan, a day driving through the beautiful mountains of the north-east to a garrison town.

Two days waiting for permission, then a drive to the house of the regional commander. Another drive to the local commander, who gave us breakfast, and an armed guard.

Then a three hour walk - through glorious scenery - great layers of rock stacked vertically, with pistachio trees nestling in the cracks.

Eventually, hot and dusty, I arrived at a mudwalled fortress hidden in a narrow valley - the prison.

Afghanistan roots

Saeed, the British Taleb was going to be brought into the guardroom for the interview. I was prepared for hostility. He looked like a typical hardliner - long, curling beard, and prayer cap.

Once in Kabul, he was urged to fight in a jihad against Russians and communists, a load of codswollop, he now admits

He sat down, cross-legged on a mattress on the floor and spoke - and it was a voice from home, open, friendly and familiar.

He said he was from Burnley, an old industrial town in the north of England.

His father was born in Pakistan in the border town of Peshawar, but they trace their roots back to Afghanistan.

He had had a religious upbringing, he said, but as a young man, he had got into trouble with the police and his father had sent him to relatives in Peshawar - an attempt to get him back on the straight and narrow.

Encouraged by his relatives he slipped into the madrassa scene of mullahs and religious schools. He said this was the point at which many young Pakistani men also join the Taleban.

He was asked if he wanted to go to Afghanistan. Once in Kabul, he was urged to fight in a jihad against Russians and communists, a load of codswollop, he now admits - the Russians left Afghanistan 12 years ago - but at the time, it sent his blood pressure sky high.

Imprisonment

He was given 40 or 50 days of military training and sent to the front.

You can say one thing for Taleban - despite being locked up without seeing a woman for years, the men only glanced at me sideways

His group was almost immediately surrounded and captured. As a valuable foreign prisoner, he was taken straight to Ahmad Shah Massoud, the main opposition commander.

"He was very kind to me," says Anwar, "but he said I'd be in Afghanistan until the war was over."

From a religious point of view, Saeed is still close to the Taleban. He agrees with their policy of closing down girls' schools, for example - but he didn't try to dress it up in religion.

"It's just our pride," he said. "Me and my four brothers, we all decided to send our sister to Pakistan rather than letting her go to school. Our pride doesn't think that even one eye should look at our women."

'Modest prisoners'

I was allowed five minutes inside the prison itself. A closed courtyard, surrounded by sheer mountains where there's nowhere to escape to.

Women face many restrictions in Afghanistan

The men were washing clothes in a stream they had diverted through the prison. You can say one thing for the Taleban - despite being locked up without seeing a woman for years, the men only glanced at me sideways.

I doubt there is a more modest set of prisoners on the face of the planet.

What interested me as a journalist talking to Saeed and others was this hard-sought information, first hand, about training camps and recruitment networks, and the accusation that Pakistani mullahs lie to get young men to fight in Afghanistan.

Network

Saeed had been surprised to find the opposition were Muslims too. A Pakistani from Sindh said he had come to prepare for the war in Kashmir.

I've got a mother, father, brothers in England, a wife, a kid, a dog, a business, I have a life there

Saeed Khan

An Yemeni said he had come for military training via the Osama Bin Laden Arab network and then been forced to go to the front for practical experience.

"I miss England," Saeed said. "I miss the rain, the community, the factories, the trains, the local Asda store, everything."

With no post, and no telephone, he is out of touch. He still thought John Major was Prime Minister - four years late with his news.

"I've got a mother, father, brothers in England, a wife, a kid, a dog, a business, I have a life there," he said.

He has no prospects of returning until the war is over.

I promised to contact Saeed's family and sent him an English translation of the Koran and left for the long journey home.