M A I N   N E W S

Taliban defiant, Laden alive

Islamabad, October 8
The Taliban’s Ambassador to Pakistan stood defiant today, saying that US attacks would fail to browbeat Afghan people ready to sacrifice all for honour, and said Osama bin Laden was alive and in the country.

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef was speaking a day after Washington led a series of missile and bomb attacks on major Afghan cities to dismantle the Taliban’s command and control system and to flush out Bin Laden.

“If the USA thinks that it will get results and fruit from the attacks, this is a wrong assumption and it will be unsuccessful,’’ Zaeef said in Islamabad.

“Afghans will never be browbeaten by these fears. They are never prepared to compromise their religion and their honour for money,’’ he said. “They will defend their religion and their honour with sacrifices.’’

The USA and its allies unleashed a series of stunning air attacks on Taliban targets across the country late last night, including at least three in Kabul, at the start of Washington’s military retaliation for harbouring Bin Laden.

But the Taliban had persistently refused to surrender Bin Laden, saying that he was a guest and the USA had not provided any evidence against him, resulting in the attacks.

“We don’t have any contact with him but he is still in Afghanistan... He is alive,’’ he added and termed the attacks on Afghanistan as acts of terrorism.

He gave no details of the military damage to the Taliban but said bombs had fallen in the district where the house of their supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was located. “The area was attacked but his house was not hit,’’ he said.

He said Afghan soldiers had confirmed the shooting down of a plane during strikes on Afghan cities the previous night. Reuters