Press Trust of India Posted online: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 at 1412 hours IST Updated: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 at 1413 hours IST
New Delhi, June 3: The most wanted international terrorist Osama bin Laden and chief of Taliban Mullah Omar were "safe and alive" in Afghanistan and were operating against American forces, senior leader of Islamist alliance Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal, Maulana Samiul Haq has said.
In an interview with Pakistani newspaper Daily Times published on Tuesday, Haq
said "Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are alive and safe, and operating in Afghanistan against American forces."
"They are sending out messages and, therefore, must be in touch with some people," he said but added that he did not know their exact whereabouts.
Brushing aside US claims that several of high profile Taliban leaders had been arrested, he said the fact was that "many of their (US) soldiers" have been killed.
Haq is the chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Sami) faction and his seminary, the Darul Uloom Akora Khatak, actively participated in the Afghan war. Mullah Omar is a former student of the seminary.
MMA, which is ruling the North West frontier province of the country, has emerged with surprising numbers at the provincial and national assembly elections in October 2002.
The government in this province had unanimously adopted a Bill to introduce Islamic Sharia Law in the region.
Commenting on his government's Islamisation policies in NWFP, he said these policies were a right step in right direction even though the centre was "conspiring" against them. "If they try to demolish our government, we will hit back in the centre," he said.
