A Pakistani boy selling a Bin-Laden shirt

ISLAMABAD, February 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The face of Osama bin Laden, the man accused by the United States for planning the September 11 attacks and who vanished 15 months ago keeping the world guessing ever since whether he is dead or alive, is ubiquitous in Pakistan.

From the bazaars of Quetta on the arid southwest plains to the suburban markets of the capital Islamabad, his sunken eyes gaze out from the covers of VCDs and books; his gaunt face and wispy beard are emblazoned on T-shirts and posters, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Osama dolls, replete with flowing white robes, sit astride toy tanks. Afghan and Western intelligence officials point to Pakistan's porous western border regions as the al-Qaeda network chief's likely hiding place, if he survived an onslaught of U.S. bombs in the November 2001 campaign in the Tora Bora mountains where some say he had fled.

On a visit to Russia early February, President Pervez Musharraf told reporters enigmatically "there are indications that (Bin Laden) is alive."

However, despite a 25-million-dollar price on his head, the only confirmed sightings since he fled the southern Afghan city of Kandahar ahead of advancing U.S. troops are of mass marketed Bin Laden images.

Shopkeepers in the northwest city of Peshawar, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Afghan border, report a roaring trade in Osama-branded VCDs and books since the United States declared its intentions to attack Iraq unless it disarms.

"Mostly tribal and religious-oriented people are customers of products carrying the face of Osama bin Laden," said a Peshawar VCD vendor.

In Quetta, toy shops lure boys with displays of models of armored personnel carriers carrying white-clad Osama dolls.

Markets in the southern port city Karachi ply hand-held video games packaged in boxes stamped with images of bin Laden and his arch-foe, U.S. President George W. Bush.

On the screens of the games, players watch as many repeats as their batteries will allow of the apocalyptic vision of planes ramming into New York's World Trade Center.

A vendor in Quetta said demand for Osama paraphernalia in his city had shrunk in the past year to a niche market.

"Osama-painted products sold like hotcakes during late 2001 and early 2002, but now these are only popular among Islamists and students of seminaries," he said.

Black T-shirts bearing bin Laden's face, hanging boldly from a stall in Islamabad's mainstream Supermarket shopping area, lure a different kind of buyer.

"They're a hit among foreigners," said the vendor. He charges eight to nine dollars per T-shirt, up to three times the price of other T-shirts in the same shopping area.

Osama's portrait adorns each day's edition of the Ummat newspaper in Pakistan's largest city Karachi. The Urdu-language daily carries slogans urging its readers to "support Islam against infidel forces."

Islamabad officials angrily reject suggestions bin Laden, the son of a Saudi construction magnate, is hiding somewhere on Pakistani soil.

Pakistan is a pivotal player in the U.S.-led hunt for bin Laden and his fugitive al-Qaeda followers, deploying 60,000 to 70,000 troops to border regions to smoke them out.

While bin Laden's fate remains uncertain, retailers in the country which supplied thousands of Islamic students to fight alongside his Taliban hosts are keeping his image, at least, well and truly alive.

“Little Bin Ladens”

In an interview with Time magazine on Sunday, February 23, French President Jacques Chirac said that a war against Iraq will trigger a negative reaction among the Arab and Islamic public opinion and will created a large number of little bin Ladens.

“A war of this kind cannot help giving a big lift to terrorism. It would create a large number of little bin Ladens. Muslims and Christians have a lot to say to one another, but war isn't going to facilitate that dialogue. I'm against the clash of civilizations; that plays into the hands of extremists,” he told the magazine.

Earlier in February as well, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed  said that the offensive against Iraq will only leave a new generation of Al-Qaeda members and increase Muslim feelings of injustice.

Mahathir made it clear that Malaysia would reluctantly back any military action against Iraq only with a decision by the United States that the Arab country had failed to get rid of its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

“If the U.N. says, so we will,” he said, but adding that he feared the consequences of a war could spread in the world ahead due to the enmity to be ignited by the sight of Iraqi civilian casualties during the potential showdown.

Mahathir had earlier said that there are causes for terrorism and the West can do something about dealing with them. He has emerged since the September 11 attacks as a spokesman for moderate Islam, defending the faith while excoriating extremists who resort to violence.