OIC to discuss Afghan developments

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, SEPT. 28. A special meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference will be held on October 9, at Doha to discuss the situation arising out of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Announcing this at a news conference here today, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Mr. Riaz Mohammad Khan, said the Foreign Ministers of the OIC would take part in the deliberations.

Islamabad had just received an intimation about the meeting from the OIC secretariat and was not in a position to discuss the issues likely to figure there. The Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, would attend the meeting.

The developments in Afghanistan, particularly in view of the U.S. charge that the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, and his Al Qaeda, were involved in the September 11 attacks, would dominate the proceedings.

Within days of the Bush administration pointing fingers at Osama and demanding that he be handed over or Taliban face the consequences, the Taliban supremo, Mullah Omar, had appealed in a public statement to the United Nations and the OIC to conduct an impartial investigation into the attacks on the American cities.

The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman had indicated earlier this week that efforts were on among the OIC members to convene a special meeting. It is not clear if Islamabad took the initiative to get the OIC convened.

Asked if the meet was not distant, given that the U.S. could strike any time, Mr. Khan said he would not speculate.

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