M A I N   N E W S

Taliban minister ‘offers’ to hand over Osama

London, October 17
A senior minister of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime has offered to hand over terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden during a secret meeting with officials of the CIA and ISI in Islamabad, a media report said here today.

For the first time, the Taliban offered to hand over Bin Laden for trial in a country other than the USA without asking to see evidence first in return for a halt to the western bombing of his country, the Guardian daily said quoting senior Pakistani official sources.

Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, considered a relatively moderate figure, met officials from the CIA and ISI in Islamabad on Monday but US officials appear to have dismissed the proposal, the report said quoting a source “close to Pakistan’s military leadership.”

According to the report, US officials pressed the Taliban minister for a sweeping change in the Kabul regime. “They are trying to persuade him to get the moderate elements together,” the report said, adding that they were also hoping to engineer a split within the Taliban leadership.

Mullah Muttawakil’s visit coincided with the arrival of US Secretary of State Colin Powell to Islamabad. PTI

Pro-Taliban leader accused of treason

Islamabad, October 17
The Pakistani authorities have registered a complaint of treason against a leading pro-Taliban Muslim leader, the police said today, but his party officials said such a move would not deter their anti-US campaign.

The police told Reuters that a complaint of treason had been registered by the local authorities against Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the pro-Taliban Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI) party, on October 14, after he tried to ‘‘incite’’ people against the Pakistani army and the police. Reuters