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Taliban won't give up Osama Bin Laden

With the United Nations' sanctions against the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan now in place, the organisation says it is ready to assure the United States that it would not allow anybody, including Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, to use Afghani soil to wage war against any country.

In an interview to the Urdu service of British Broadcasting Corporation from Qandhar last night, Taliban spokesman Syed Aqa stuck to his government's stand that Bin Laden would not be asked to leave Afghanistan or handed over to any country to be tried for his alleged role in the bombing of American embassies in East Africa in August last year killing more than 200 people.

But, he said, the Taliban was willing to hold talks with the United States. Asked what they wanted to talk, Syed Aqa said the Taliban would assure the United States that neither Bin Laden nor any other person would be allowed to use Afghani soil to wage war against a third country.

After the sanctions, no foreign flights can go to Afghanistan and all assets of the country would be frozen worldwide. The Taliban spokesman said these sanctions would add to the suffering of the Afghan people.

According to a BBC correspondent in Peshawar, yesterday's agitation in Kabul against the United Nations and the United States could have been supported by the Taliban regime because it took place despite a ban on protests and processions.

In Pakistan too, despite such a ban, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Islam held separate public meetings yesterday in the North West Frontier Province to condemn the sanctions.

UNI

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