Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The ruling Islamic militia also urges Afghans to prepare for a jihad, or holy war, against America. ''God is on our side,'' says Mullah Mohammed Hasan Akhund.
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 19, 2001
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban government of Afghanistan delayed issuing a final response Tuesday to American demands that it surrender Osama bin Laden, but Muslim clerics there and in Pakistan talked of resisting the United States if it attacked.
Hundreds of Islamic clerics were gathering in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to discuss conditions for extraditing bin Laden to a country other than the United States, a Pakistan government official said. The clerics are expected to meet today, said Hamdullah Nomani, the mayor of Kabul and host of the gathering.
The conditions, including international recognition of the Taliban government and the lifting of U.N. sanctions, were discussed Monday in Kandahar, headquarters of the Islamic militia that rules most of Afghanistan, the Pakistani official said on condition of anonymity.
It seemed unlikely the United States would agree to have bin Laden extradited to another country. A delegation sent by Pakistan to try to convince the Taliban to hand over bin Laden went home Tuesday without reaching an agreement, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf scheduled a televised address to his people tonight. Before leaving Kabul, the Pakistani delegation met with eight detained aid workers being tried on charges of illegally preaching Christianity, the official said. Pakistan asked the Taliban to release the aid workers -- two Americans, four Germans and two Australians -- and the rulers promised to consider the request, he said.
The Taliban, who say bin Laden was wrongly implicated in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, urged the people of Afghanistan to prepare for a jihad, or holy war, against America, the official Bakhtar News Agency reported Tuesday.
"If America attacks our homes, it is necessary for all Muslims, especially for Afghans, to wage a holy war," Mullah Mohammed Hasan Akhund, the deputy Taliban leader, said Monday, according to state-run Radio Shariat. "God is on our side, and if the world's people try to set fire to Afghanistan, God will protect us and help us."
Since taking control of most of Afghanistan in 1996, the Taliban have declared holy wars against the northern-based anti-Taliban alliance, Russia and Iran, but never the United States.
The Taliban government is only officially recognized by three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The Taliban's foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, condemned the violence within hours of the attacks in New York and Washington but said it would have been impossible for bin Laden to carry out the assaults. Bin Laden lacks the facilities for such an elaborate operation, he said.
Since then, the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who has declared himself head of all Muslims, has defended bin Laden and accused the United States of pointing the finger in his direction because investigators have failed to come up with a real suspect.
Many Pakistanis living along the 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan promised to join the jihad against America, and possibly their own government, if there are retaliatory strikes.
"America is putting a gun on Pakistan's shoulder to fire at Afghanistan. The Pakistani people cannot accept this," said Haji Abdul Razzaq, a mechanic in the western city of Peshawar, near the Afghan border.
On Tuesday, some 3,000 people in the Pakistani city of Karachi demonstrated near a mosque that runs a religious school many Taliban leaders attended, warning of more attacks. Many carried posters of bin Laden portrayed as a hero.
"Until now, only one World Trade Center has been destroyed," demonstrators shouted in unison in English. "But we will destroy all of America. We will die for Taliban. We will die for Islam. We will die for Osama."
- Information from the Baltimore Sun was used in this report.