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U.S. Wants To Send Inspectors to Afghanistan To Locate Bin Laden
By Aamir Latif
ISLAMABAD, Sept 28 (IslamOnline) - The U.S. told the Taliban government Friday to allow special inspection teams, comprising U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials, to enter Afghanistan to locate the prime suspect of September 11th terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Osama Bin Laden, reliable intelligence sources told IslamOnline.
The Taliban, who allow bin Laden to stay in their country as a guest, say the U.S.'s "most wanted" man has already left the war-torn country for an unknown destination.
However, U.S. intelligence agencies believe that bin Laden is still holed up inside Afghanistan.
The U.S. request will be presented to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar by an
ulema (scholar) delegation, scheduled to meet him Friday or Saturday, the source said.
Other demands include the exchange of information about al-Qaeda's network and the handing over of its members to U.S. agencies, the source added.
Earlier, Pakistan's military leadership contacted the leaders of two main Islamic parties, Jaamat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, to join the official
ulema delegation. The two leaders declined the request, however, saying that the Pakistani government has no substantive proposal to be presented to the Taliban.
Fazl-ur-Rehman confirmed to IslamOnline that top military officials to join the delegation had approached him but, "I refused them. I asked the officials about the agenda or proposals for talks with Taliban on their stand-off with America, they had nothing but a pack of old demands made by [the U.S.], which are unacceptable for us," he maintained.
He confirmed that the proposal of sending U.S. and Pakistani inspection teams to locate the whereabouts of bin Laden was also included in the agenda presented by military officials.
"They [military officials] asked me to help them persuade Taliban to allow the inspection teams to enter Afghanistan to locate Osama", Fazl said, adding, "But I refused to entertain their request as I am not the U.S. envoy. I don't want to even be an ambassador of this government."
"I asked the officials that such requests should directly be made to the Taliban government in order to avoid any misunderstanding," the JUI chief said, adding, "If I or other
ulema make this proposal to the Taliban government, it may create differences or misunderstandings between us."
"Afghanistan is an independent country. If Taliban want to allow U.S. and Pakistani intelligence teams to enter Afghanistan, they can. Why should I persuade them to do that?" he said. "I don't think that the
ulema delegation scheduled to meet Mullah Omer will try to persuade him to succumb to U.S. desires."
He added that he knew the scholars all and that they would not do that.
They may inform the Taliban about the U.S. demand but would never take steps to persuade the group to comply with it, he maintained.
He said he was ready to go to Afghanistan if the Taliban invited him, but not "on the desire of U.S. or Pakistani government."
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