The Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan said yesterday the hardline Islamic movement had hidden Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden for his own safety, ignoring US demands to hand him over.
"Osama is in Afghanistan, but he is at an unknown place for his safety and security," Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. "Only security people know about his whereabouts. Osama bin Laden is under our control."
He said bin Laden had been given an edict from a council of religious elders, the ulema, and endorsed by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, that asked him to leave the country at a time of his choosing.
The US has vowed to track down bin Laden -- chief suspect in the devastating Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington -- and to punish his Taliban protectors.
But the Taliban says Washington must provide evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the attacks in which some 6,500 people are dead or missing.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said yesterday the US wants the Taliban out of power if it continues to support terrorists, as the Bush administration believes it does.
"If they are going to be associated with these terrorist acts, they should not be in power," Card told Fox News Sunday in an interview.
However, Card stopped short of saying the US sought to topple the Taliban.
"We are not about nation-building here," Card said. "We want to make sure the Taliban is not a government that will aid and abet terrorists."
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that he had seen "powerful and incontrovertible evidence" linking bin Laden to attacks in the US.
Much of it came from intelligence services and other sensitive sources, he told BBC television, and leaders were still figuring out how to present it to the public.
RSS