Taleban Militia Launch Clandestine Radio Station
April 19, 2005
Article originally posted at: http://www.aljazeerah.info/April%202005%20News/19%20n/Taleban%20Militia%20Launch%20Clandestine%20Radio%20Station.htm
Al Jazeera
KANDAHAR, 19 April 2005 - Afghanistan's Taleban launched a clandestine radio station yesterday, broadcasting anti-government commentaries from a mobile transmitter.
Called "Shariat Shagh", or Voice of Shariat, after the station the Taleban ran while in power, the broadcast can be heard in five southern provinces, including the former regime's old power base of Kandahar.
"We launched the broadcast today through a mobile facility," said Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi.
"It goes on the air between six and seven o'clock in the mornings and same time in the evenings," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Hakimi said the Taleban, resisting in the south and east of the country since they were driven from power in late 2001, needed their own voice because the world's media were pro-American.
Many Afghans listen to the BBC and Voice of America which broadcast in the country's two main languages, Pashto and Dari. In addition to government-run radio, numerous small, private stations have sprung up, many funded by aid donors.
The Taleban station criticized US and other foreign troops operating in Afghanistan since the Taleban were ousted.
Asked what the Taleban would do if US forces detected and destroyed their transmitter, Hakimi said they would set up another.
Meanwhile, US troops have detained 24 suspected Taleban members in the southeastern province of Khost, bordering Pakistan.
The men were picked up during a Sunday night raid by US troops backed by helicopters in Khost’s remote Ali Sher district, Khost Governor Mirajuddin Patan told Reuters.
He did not know if any prominent Taleban members were among those arrested, but said local officials had urged US forces to coordinate such raids with provincial authorities.
(Al Jazeera Apr 19 via Grace-USA)
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