‘OBL hiding near Pak-Afghan border’

PARUN (Afghanistan)—Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and hiding out along the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a top Afghan official said. “I don’t know exactly where he is but what is clear is that bin Laden is alive, he is in the region,” said Zalmai Rasoul, national security advisor to President Hamid Karzai.
“If we knew about his whereabouts, we would’ve caught him — but he’ll be caught one day,” Rasoul told on Saturday in Parun, the capital of the poverty-stricken northeast province of Nuristan which borders Pakistan.
A US-led coalition of about 20,000 troops is in Afghanistan hunting the Al-Qaeda leader who was sheltered by the hardline Taliban regime that ruled the country until late 2001. The Taliban were removed from power in a US-led campaign launched after they failed to hand over bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York. Rasoul said however there was “no Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan”.
“They’re coming from outside and when there’s pressure against them by Afghan or coalition forces, they cross back over the border into the other side,” he said. Asked whether he was referring to Pakistan, he said: “Inside Pakistan there are some extremist groups cooperating with Al-Qaeda.
The Taliban were removed from power in a US-led campaign launched after they failed to hand over bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York. It’s not only a threat for Afghanistan but it’s a threat for Pakistan too”.—Agencies