People ran from their homes and thick clouds of smoke engulfed the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during overnight strikes by US warplanes, according to a trickle of witnesses arriving in Pakistan early on Monday.
One man said he saw at least four people injured.
"I was standing on my roof when I heard planes overhead, and the next thing I knew there were explosions and panic everywhere," said Nematollah, who like many Afghans uses one name.
"The electricity went out, and people were running in the streets in the darkness," said Nematollah, who arrived early on Monday in the border town of Chaman, about 120 kilometers from Kandahar.
Witnesses said Kandahar's airport and the home of Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, appeared to have been the military action's primary targets in the city.
"Many people began to flee the city after the attacks began," said Malang Bacha, who arrived in Chaman with his wife and four children after a three-hour journey in a pickup truck loaded with other fleeing residents.
"It was very hard to see in the dark, but I saw four injured people," Bacha said.
At the border, business appeared to unfold as usual, with no sign of fleeing refugees. Most of the steady stream of people crossing have businesses on the Pakistani side but live in Kandahar.
In Chaman, where Taliban influence and support is strong, people talked of calling a general strike. The strip of dingy, dust-blown road that runs to the border was largely abandoned. In town, about 150 people ranged the streets, tossing stones at shops that were not closed. No windows were broken.
A half-dozen trucks loaded with flour waited for the border to open at 7 am (0200 gmt) to cross into Afghanistan. Pickups filled with blocks of melting ice and bound for Vesh, a market just across the border, also waited for guards to lower the chain that marks the frontier.
Trucks loaded with pomegranates and grapes, many waiting all night for the border to open, lumbered into Chaman, a smugglers' paradise filled with everything from Japanese televisions to blankets and cooking oil smuggled from the Gulf, through Afghanistan and into Pakistan.
Later, demonstrators shouting "Death to America!" marched toward the border, carrying the banner of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, the Pakistani political party that most closely echoes Taliban views. The size of the demonstration was not immediately clear.
In Torkham, a border town at the fabled Khyber Pass in northwest Pakistan, no large-scale movements of Afghans were reported early Monday at major crossing points.
However, about 100 Afghans were prevented by Pakistani border guards from entering Afghanistan. Pakistani border officials refused to open the border gate, and the 10-foot-high (3-meter) black steel gates were padlocked.
Measures to prevent Afghans from returning to their country are highly unusual. Pakistani border guards in Torkham said the Taliban asked Pakistan not to let people through.
Fazl Karim, 42, said he was anxious to return home to the Afghan city of Jalalabad. He said he had been in Pakistan hours before the strike looking for a place to move.
"I have all of my family in Jalalabad," Karim said. "I am very worried. I want to get back, but they won't let me."
In Peshawar, just east of Torkham, streets were quiet Monday morning and religious leaders were discussing how to react. The government in North West Frontier province ordered all schools closed for a week.
Farther south, in the border town of Quetta, authorities in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province told Afghan refugees to stop anti-Pakistan protests or face deportation. A government statement also warned them against any political activities.
Provincial authorities closed down all schools for three days. No reason was given, but it appeared aimed at averting student protests.
Meanwhile, hospitals in Quetta have been ordered to prepare for the arrival of wounded from Afghanistan. No such arrivals were immediately reported.
(China Daily 10/08/2001)
