Pakistan urged Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on Friday to make a "prompt decision" on the future of alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden as US pressure for his extradition intensified.
A foreign ministry spokesman said the Taliban should consider the consequences for the Afghan people if it hesitated to carry out an edict from Afghanistan's religious leaders, recommending that bin Laden be asked to leave the country voluntarily.
"We hope that the Taliban leadership, keeping in view the gravity of the situation, will take a prompt decision which is in the interest of Afghanistan and its people which satisfies the concerns and demands of the international community," said spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan.
"Pakistan deeply cares for the Afghan people and would not like to see them subjected to new dangers."
Earlier Friday, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef told reporters here that the edict from the Islamic clerics was not binding.
"There is no compulsion. As you see it is only a suggestion of the ulema [clerics]," he said, adding that the Taliban was not prepared to hand over bin Laden in the absence of US evidence of his complicity in the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11 -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
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