The Taliban on Friday threatened to hang captured supporters of a top aide to exiled former king Zahir Shah who is on an undercover mission in Afghanistan, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.
The Islamic militia was reported to have captured 25 followers of former Afghan deputy foreign minister Hamid Karzai after a clash in Deharwad in Uruzgan province.
Taliban fighters were hunting Karzai in hills in the province, a Taliban official in Kabul said. Karzai's brother said he was still at liberty.
Karzai followed another former resistance fighter in attempting a secret mission into Afghanistan to counter the Taliban. Abdul Haq, a former guerrilla commander, was caught and executed by the militia last week.
As in Abdul Haq's case, the Taliban said it fought off US helicopters that came to rescue Karzai and that it was searching for him.
AIP quoted Taliban sources as saying execution orders had been issued for "important" members of the detained group and they were expected to be hanged on Friday.
Ahmad Wali Karzai said he had spoken to his elder brother on Friday morning and he was "on the outskirts of Deharwad" where Karzai and his supporters fought the Taliban.
"He is alive, he told me everything is fine," the brother said from Quetta in Pakistan. "But our family is very worried."
According to Ahmad Wali Karzai, the envoy was meeting ethnic Pashtun tribal representatives when they were attacked by the Taliban on Thursday night.
"The tribesmen fought back with Karzai and his followers against the Taliban," the brother said. "He was working for peace, he wants peace."
Karzai, 46, is believed to be on a similar mission to Abdul Haq, who the Taliban captured and executed with two associates. They were believed to be trying to set up an uprising against the predominantly Pashtun Taliban and were executed as US spies.
In Kabul, Qari Fazil Rabi, deputy head of the Taliban's Bakhter information agency, told AFP Taliban troops were told where Karzai's hideout was and after a fight he had fled to the hills. He said two followers of Karzai were killed and a number of weapons seized.
Karzai is close to Zahir Shah, who is the focus of attempts to form a post-Taliban government if US military operations, launched in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, succeed in ousting the militia.
Karzai served as deputy foreign minister in the mujahedin's interim government after the fall of the communist regime in Afghanistan in 1992.
The killing of Abdul Haq and his associates was seen as a blow to attempts to split the Taliban and boost the campaign to capture alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden, who is harboured by the fundamentalist militia.
AIP said the Taliban claimed four US helicopters had tried to rescue Karzai on Thursday night but failed after Taliban troops fired at them.
The report said four supporters of the ex-king were killed and several others were wounded in the battle.
Sources said the influential Pashtun leader had slipped into Taliban-held areas in October.
Haji Hayatullah, head of the Council for Understanding, an Afghan group attempting to reconcile differences among Afghanistan's warring factions, said "Karzai has been inside Afghanistan for 20 days and his mission was the same as Abdul Haq's -- to convince the Taliban in his tribal area in southern Afghanistan to support the king." -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
