Border province breeds potential Afghan revolt

Hekmatyar appears to be rallying his main party organizers, top-level leaders, and commanders of Hizb-I Islami, say Afghan officials both here and in Kabul. In addition, Hekmatyar's party is rallying public sentiment against US forces and the Karzai government through leaflets and mobile radio broadcasts from both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Gul Adad, chief of the Afghan border security force at Nawa Pass checkpoint, says his men often listen to Hekmatyar's speeches on their radios. The range of their radios is only 12 kilometers, which suggests that the mobile radio station is quite close to the border.

Both China and Pakistan vehemently deny supporting Al Qaeda terrorists, or other enemies of Afghanistan. As evidence of its loyalty in the war on terrorism, Pakistan touts the more than 400 alleged terrorists captured on its soil since the fall of the Taliban - all of whom have been handed over to American law-enforcement officials. More than 340 of these accused terrorists were captured in the Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghan border, says Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for the Pakistani military and for President Pervez Musharraf.

"There is very close logistical and intelligence cooperation between the US and Pakistan," says General Qureshi in a phone interview. "Some people say that Al Qaeda is hiding in the tribal areas, but every time a foreign reporter has been there, they find nothing there."

Yet Afghan, Pakistani, and US military authorities have repeatedly cited shadowy "training camps" along the 1,500-mile Afghan-Pakistani border as posing the greatest challenge in routing terrorism in the region.

In Asadabad, Security Chief Najibullah can only tick off the cities and areas that he doesn't control. In Barikot, a border city north of Asadabad, there are reports of more than 300 foreign fighters receiving refuge in the hometown of a top Hizb-I Islami commander, Kashmir Khan. Similarly, Dangam, Asmar, and Narai are in enemy hands, even though the appointed leaders there still talk of supporting the Karzai government. "Up there, they are against the government, and against us," says Najibullah. "And the reason they are against us is that we haven't brought them anything. No hospitals, no doctors, no roads, no security. Nothing has changed, only the faces of the leaders."

A group of US Army civilian affairs personnel, which had been stationed in Asadabad to begin the reconstruction of schools, hospitals, and roads, has been withdrawn to Kabul due to ongoing rocket attacks against the US base there.

The atmosphere of uncertainty in Konar leaves many citizens with a sense of foreboding. "I am sure that in the very near future, this province will be the center of a big clash of two regimes," says Mohammad Nasser, a shopkeeper in Asadabad, who says he welcomes US forces and the new Afghan government. "On one side are the old radical Islamists of the Taliban, and on the other side are the new liberal Muslims. And I am not sure which side will win."

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