Kabul | Wednesday
TALIBAN leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said on Wednesday alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden would not be extradited without evidence, adding US allegations against him were a pretext to wage war on Islam.
Several US efforts to show them evidence, and the convictions of several of bin Laden’s associates in New York earlier this year, have been ignored.
Hundreds of Islamic clerics gathered in Kabul on Wednesday to consider the fate of bin Laden as Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers warned the population to prepare for a ”holy war” if attacked by the United States.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday added its voice to calls on the Islamic fundamentalist regime to surrender bin Laden, saying he should be turned over ”immediately and unconditionally.”
The clerics arriving in the Afghan capital also appeared to be in no mood for compromise.
”Even if the whole of Afghanistan is devastated we won’t hand him over until there is solid proof against him,” said Mullah Mohammad Hassan, a representative of Paktika province. Another scholar, Mawlawi Abdul Zahir from the Bagram district of Kabul, added: ”We are ready to defend ourselves if the Americans attack us. We have already defeated and taught a lesson to their British grandfathers and their Russian brothers.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that the Pentagon has intensified preparations for a possible overseas deployment of US troops that could begin within weeks. The newspaper said that US and Pakistani officials had drafted plans for using bases in Pakistan as staging grounds for raids into neighbouring Afghanistan.
Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was quoted as saying that the United States is preparing ”a very broadly based campaign to go after the terrorist problem where it exists.”
Rumsfeld was quoted as saying that the US military would ”use the full spectrum of our capabilities,” which would include small-scale raids using Special Forces troops to airstrikes and cruise missile barrages, officials said.
The New York Times quoted Rumsfeld as saying that the difficulty in identifying bombing targets in Afghanistan had led the Pentagon to develop a broader, more unconventional type of campaign – leaving the door open to ground troops, including commando units. ”Several countries have exhausted themselves pounding that country,” the newspaper quoted Rumsfeld as saying.
”There are not great things of value that are easy to deal with. And what we’ll have to do is exactly what I said: use the full spectrum of our capabilities.”
Rumsfeld did not commit the United States to sending ground forces into Afghanistan, but has talked about the importance of using special operations forces in the fight against terrorism in the world.
A senior Taliban official issued an appeal for volunteers meanwhile willing to fight a war against ”infidels” and said ”if there is an invasion of an Islamic country, there will be jihad against the invaders.”
The last Afghan jihad was issued against the Soviet Union after its 1979 invasion of the country and resulted, a decade later, in the Red Army beating a humiliating retreat.
The unexpected decision to seek a ruling from the scholars was announced by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar after a high-level Pakistani delegation visited him Monday in the southeastern stronghold of Kandahar, where bin Laden also has a home.
A team led by the head of Pakistan’s intelligence services, the Taliban’s main backers, gave Omar a blunt warning on Monday that Afghanistan would face US attack if bin Laden is not handed over.
Unconfirmed reports in the Pakistani press said the Taliban imposed conditions on bin Laden’s release, but senior officials in Islamabad have insisted no negotiations took place during the talks.
The Taliban consider bin Laden an honoured ”guest” and have repeatedly ruled out his extradition to face charges in the United States relating to the twin US embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998 which left 224 people dead.
Ordinary Afghans have been fleeing the main cities in fear of a US strike, with thousands massing near the Pakistani border.
Pakistan, one of just three countries to extend diplomatic recognition to the Taliban, has sealed its border with Afghanistan and the crisis has raised fears of instability in Afghanistan’s nuclear-capable neighbour.
Taliban supporters in the Pakistani city of Karachi mounted the biggest anti-American demonstration yet on Tuesday, heightening fears that any US attack on Afghanistan could have devastating implications for the stability of Pakistan. – Sapa-AFP, Own Correspondent