Taliban bury corpse of executed opposition figure, leaving Afghan exiles vowing revenge

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press Writer

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Afghanistan's Taliban buried the hanged corpse of an opposition leader in Taliban territory Sunday, an aide said, leaving the country's exiled opposition to mourn – and vow revenge – without him.

"We lost our brother, but our war will persevere," Hajji din Mohammed, brother of the executed Abdul Haq, told Afghan mourners gathered in Pakistan at a simple prayer service without the body.

"This does not make us afraid," din Mohammed declared of Haq's brutal end. "We renew our promise to fight for Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan."

Taliban officials initially told the family they would hand over the body Sunday for burial in Pakistan, relatives here said.

When brothers went to retrieve the body, however, they were told the Taliban themselves had buried it in Haq's eastern home village of Surkhrud, Haq aide Abdul Rahim Zalmi said.

On Sunday, guerrilla veterans maimed by war gathered outside the gates of the family home in Peshawar, in northern Pakistan across the border from Afghanistan.

Leaning on artificial legs and canes, they wiped tears from their faces and bitterly accused the United States of failing to help their former commander.

Taliban forces hanged Haq Friday within hours of capturing him, ending what was widely seen as a maverick mission by the former Afghan guerrilla leader into the heart of Taliban-held central Afghanistan.

He was trying to rally Afghan tribal leaders and others to a new government to be organized under the chairmanship of the deposed king, Mohammad Zaher Shah.

Family members would try to persuade Taliban officials to exhume the body for burial in Pakistan, Zalmi said. In the meantime, plans for a large community service were canceled. Instead, leaders of the Afghan opposition community trickled into the walled family compound to pay their respects.

Unlike most northern-based opposition figures, who are members of Afghanistan's ethnic Uzbek and Tajik minorities, Haq was a Pashtun, like most Taliban. The Pashtuns are the predominant ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Haq also commanded wide respect as a war hero, even among many former comrades in the Taliban. He had been a leading commander in the Afghan fight against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, losing a foot to a Soviet mine.

U.S. officials say Haq's mission had no direct support or endorsement from them, although they acknowledge calling in airstrikes Friday to try – too late – to save him when he was trapped by Taliban fighters.

The United States had been hoping for an Afghan opposition figure to emerge to rally Afghan anti-Taliban sentiment. The Taliban have yet to see any major defections during the 3-week-old U.S.-led military campaign, however.

Dad Mohammed, who fought alongside Haq in the war against the Soviets until he himself lost a leg, said Haq had told him in their last meeting weeks ago to be ready – his commander might be calling on him again, for a new mission in Afghanistan.

Instead, the weeping veteran – wearing a dirty smock and a battered artificial leg – was left vowing Sunday to go into Afghanistan alone, to avenge Haq's death.

He blamed the Taliban – but also what he called a lack of help for Haq from the United States.

"We all hate America, all of us," he said. "They always want to use us and our people, and then they abandon us."

AP-WS-10-28-01 0928EST