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Osama bin Laden rumored to have slipped into China

Osama bin Laden has made his escape from Afghanistan and is now hiding somewhere in China, it was claimed Friday night.

Many observers believe stories of bin Laden's "escape" are merely a crude ploy by the Taliban to try to avert a massive American assault. Bin Laden, they suggest, is still holed up somewhere in Afghanistan.

Other well-connected sources in Pakistan are convinced that bin Laden has left the country. Nasirullah Khan Babar, a former interior minister who helped create the Taliban in the mid-1990s, said last night: "He left six or seven days ago." Babar said bin Laden had gone voluntarily. "Osama realized he had become a liability. It was only human for him to decide to go."

Asked whether bin Laden was now in Pakistan, Babar replied: "I don't think so. There are other friends."

Bin Laden is said to have fled to China via the obscure Wakhan Corridor, a remote and mountainous finger of land, devised by the British to separate their empire from the Russian enemy. The corridor, sandwiched between Pakistan to the south and Tajikistan to the north, sweeps across the Pamir mountains before terminating in China's restive Xinjiang province.

The road inside the corridor runs out at the small town of Panja. After that the route is only accessible by foot or on horseback.

According to border sources, bin Laden crossed into China on Thursday at lunchtime, then disappeared. Rumors of his departure come a day after the Taliban's ruling Islamic council said that bin Laden should be persuaded to leave Afghanistan.

Other sources quoted in Pakistan's The News yesterday claimed that bin Laden left Afghanistan on Monday.

There has been little consensus as to where the Saudi dissident might find sanctuary: early possibilities included the remote mountainous region of Chechnya and the tribal enclaves of Pakistan.

Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen and Iraq have also been mentioned.

There seems to be no doubt, though, that if bin Laden has left Afghanistan he is accompanied by a small group of loyal bodyguards.

An Afghan source last night said the "Sheikh" -- bin Laden -- was in good health and surrounded by "Arab youngsters," who had promised to sacrifice their lives in his defense. "These educated and committed Arabs know about biology, chemistry and nuclear sciences, and are ready to make use of their knowledge to defend Muslims all over the world."

Inside Afghanistan, Taliban officials claim that bin Laden has been untraceable for the past two days and claim that even the Taliban leadership is now unaware of his whereabouts. "We have said that Osama can leave voluntarily. I do not know precisely if he has left Afghanistan or not," Mawlawi Ahmad Jan, the Taliban's industry minister, said yesterday in Kabul.

The north-western province of Xinjiang, where bin Laden is purported to have fled, is China's largest muslim province.
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