USA, UN firm on sanctions
Taliban refuse to hand over Laden

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (PTI, AFP) — The USA and the UN have asserted that sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan will take effect from tomorrow unless it hands over the suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden to stand trial and said they would not be deterred by string of rocket attacks at their establishments in Islamabad yesterday by unidentified persons.

On the other hand, the Taliban in Afghanistan said they would not hand over Bin Laden, wanted by the US law enforcement agencies for the bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last year.

"We will not hand over Laden to the USA because we do not have an extradition treaty and nor does the USA recognise our government," Taliban ‘Foreign Minister’ Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel was quoted by AFP as saying.

"We will not expel Laden against his will. He is innocent as far as we know," he said.

As the investigators in Pakistan searched for clues to the identity of those who fired rockets at the US Embassy, a UN building and a US cultural centre, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked Islamabad to bring "cowardly terrorists" to justice and the Taliban to guarantee safety and the well-being of UN personnel in Afghanistan.

At the UN headquarters, the current Security Council chief,Mr Dailo Turk of Slovenia, said the imposition of the sanctions under the council resolution was automatic unless the Taliban handed over Bin Laden.

The council had adopted a resolution giving one month’s time till November 14 to the Taliban to hand over Bin Laden to either to the USA or some other country from which he could be extradited to the USA or tried on charges of terrorism within a month.

Failing that, it had decided the sanctions would come into effect which would ban member states from having air links and make it obligatory on them to freeze the Taliban accounts.

The sanctions exempt flights carrying humanitarian goods or taking pilgrims to holy places.

In Washington, State Department spokesman James Rubin said sanctions against the Taliban would be imposed on schedule unless it hands over Laden.

Security was beefed up across Pakistan and as explosive experts examined crude home-made launchers used in the attack, Military Ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf held a high-level meeting with senior police and security officials on the prevailing law and order situation.

A special investigation group led by Superintendent of Police Khalid Mahmood had been set up to probe the attacks for which no one has so far taken responsibility.

The US State Department warned American citizens not to travel to Afghanistan and warned its citizens residing in or travelling to Pakistan to exercise extreme caution and limit travel outside their homes.

The announcement also said it is not known if the attacks on the UN and US establishments in Pakistan were connected with the sanctions.

Meanwhile, in Karachi, Islamic leaders claimed that the series of bomb blasts in Islamabad were a US conspiracy against the Muslims.

"It is a pack of lies and sheer madness to blame the Taliban and Osama," said Maulana Sami-ul Haq, head of the Jamiat Ulemae Islam, a party of religious Islamic scholars.

"The Taliban are Muslims and friends of the Pakistani people, why would they want to create terrorism here?" he said.

Rocket attacks: timely reminder to India

NEW DELHI: With in less than a week of conclusion of the two-day convention near Lahore of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, attended by over 200,000 people, including a large number of foreigners from Islamic countries, the Pakistani military rulers have had a foretaste of what terrorist threats are about.

Almost the same time as the Lashkar hosted its international terrorist conference, without any interference from the military rulers, Taliban leader Mullah Oma of Afghanistan had reiterated his threat to attack US interests at places of his choosing in case Washington continued to insist on the handing over by Afghanistan of the Saudi millionaire terrorist warlord Osama bin Laden.

The Americans, who have so far been content with only hiking the price on Laden's head to a $ million, without anyone showing interest in it, have reason now to sit up and do something more than merely trying persuasion. The rocket attacks launched on the American Embassy and the American Information Services Cultural Centre around noon on Thursday in Islamabad's high security diplomatic enclave should come as clinching evidence of the seriousness of the Taliban-Lashkar threat. That's if USA chooses to overlook the highly stepped up terrorist activities, masterminded by the Lashkar and carried out by its "fedayeen" groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

In Thursday's daring rocket attack, the terrorists had targeted the American Embassy and US Cultural Centre apart from some UN offices, including the World Food Programme office. If they didn't quite make it to the target this time over, the terrorists have at least succeeded in proving that they can be unstoppable in terrorist-friendly Pakistan. Islamabad, incidentally, has been turned into a fortress-like city after the October 12 coup which brought Gen. Pervez Musharraf to power. The area where the American Embassy is located, in the heartland of "official" Islamabad, is particularly well guarded.

And to imagine four cars, armed with "home-made" rocket launchers penetrating the security cordon and being parked in the vicinity of the targeted buildings is simply mind-boggling.

Five hours later the rockets were launched the security personnel in Islamabad were, according to official Pakistani sources, unable to explain how the cars managed to reach their destinations and how the rockets were launched. A Pakistani journalist present near the American Embassy shortly before the rockets were blasted simultaneously at four locations told CNN that he had moments before seen one car with two rocket launchers parked outside. The police had merely managed to collect splintered shells from a government building and few more pieces from the park nearby. If the rockets fell short or beyond the targeted buildings is something the Americans have to be grateful for. At 11.25 a.m., when the rockets burst, the embassy and the cultural centre are normally packed with people.

One construction put on the timing of the rocket attack is that it was intended to serve as a warning to the USA and the United Nations against the impositions of sanctions on Afghanistan beginning next Sunday, already approved of by the UN Security Council. Mullah Omar is on record saying that if the sanctions are given effect to, the terrorists will attack US interests at places of their choice. The Lashkar-e-Toiba, which has become overactive in Jammu and Kashmir in the post-Kargil weeks had at its Lahore convention has simultaneously, pledged to set up its jehad against the USA and Kashmir. Kashmir has already witnessed several "dedayeen" (suicide) attacks carried out by the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The Americans have now been put on alert.

And, this at a time when Lt.-Gen. Yaqub Ali Khan, former Pakistani Foreign Minister, is making the rounds of world capitals to gain acceptance for the military regime headed by General Musharraf. Yaqub Khan, who served as Foreign Minister under Gen. Zia-ul Haq is a very suave man. A scion of the Rampur family he dropped the "Ali" in his name on friendly advice from Zia, the advantage being that he would thus not be immediately identified as a Shia Muslim and that he might even be accepted as a Pathan soldier-turned diplomat.

The rocket attack in Islamabad comes as a timely reminder to India, if one was needed, that Pakistan is not going to allow any let-up in its terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. The patronage afforded to the Lahore conclave of the Lashkar-e-Toiba by the military government offers a solid piece of evidence of its intentions. If anything, we may only be seeing a further scaling up of the terrorist operations in Kashmir.
— Asia Defence News International.