Defying a US ultimatum and preparations for war, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said Friday Afghanistan's ruling militia was not prepared to surrender Osama bin Laden to the United States.
"Without evidence, no," Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef told a press conference in Islamabad when asked if the Taliban would bow to intense US pressure to extradite the main suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
"Our position is that if America has evidence and proof, they should produce it. We are ready for the trial of Osama bin Laden in the light of the evidence," Zaeef said.
The Taliban has stated that any trial process would have to be instigated by the Afghan Supreme Court, with judicial observers from the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Zaeef also reiterated that the Taliban militia was ready for holy war, or jihad, with anyone who dared attack Afghanistan.
Hours later, Pakistan appealed to the Taliban to consider the consequences for the Afghan people if it ignored 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 satisfies the concerns and demands of the international community," said spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan.
However, Ambassador Zaeef argued that Thursday's edict from the Afghan ulema, or clerics, was advisory in nature and therefore non-binding.
The debate over Bin Laden's fate intensified after US President George W. Bush gave the Taliban a stern warning in a rare speech to a joint session of Congress -- deliver Bin Laden and other terrorists to the United States or face the consequences.
"The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate," he said.
Bush ordered the radical Islamic militia to "deliver to [the] United States" all the leaders of Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, suspected of carrying out last week's devastating terror attacks in the United States.
Bin Laden, already indicted in New York for his alleged role in the two US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, has denied all US allegations of terrorism, but in reported statements after the September 11 attacks he said he was pleased the United States had been taught a lesson.
He has been living in Afghanistan under the wing of the Taliban since 1996. Rumors were rife Thursday that he may have already left the country, possibly for Chechnya or Central Asian states where he has links with Islamist militants.
But Pakistani sources with close links to Bin Laden told AFP he was still in Afghanistan, relishing the prospect of confrontation with the United States.
"This is the moment he has been waiting for. His prayers are coming true," one source said.
Taliban ambassador Zaeef said he had no "exact information" about Bin Laden's whereabouts.
As US aircraft carriers, warplanes and troops deployed to regions around Afghanistan, Bush dismissed the fatwa from the Afghan scholars and presented four specific demands to the Taliban which were "not open to negotiation or discussion".
As well as handing over all al-Qaeda members, the president said the Taliban must close all terrorist training camps and deliver "every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities".
The militia must also "give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating".
Aid agency sources said Friday that more than 1.5 million Afghan refugees were threatening to swamp camps in Pakistan and on the Iranian border as terrified citizens fled in fear of a massive US attack.
Both countries have made desperate efforts to contain the refugee influx by closing their long and porous borders with Afghanistan.
Fierce fighting also broke out in two northern Afghan provinces, where anti-Taliban opposition forces claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the regime.
Opposition spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem said "huge attacks" were launched Thursday afternoon in Hazrat Sultan district just north of Aibak, the provincial capital of Samangan, and in the neighboring province of Balkh.
Leaders of the loose alliance of opposition forces based mainly in the northeast of Afghanistan have offered their full support to any US attack against the radical militia.
But the opposition has been hit by the loss of its commander, Ahmad Shah Masood, in a suicide bomb attack this month.
Meanwhile, two people were killed as hardline Islamic groups opposed to Pakistan's support for possible US strikes on Afghanistan clashed with police in Karachi Friday, but a feared wave of violent mass protests across the country failed to materialize -- KABUL (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
