Pak. embarrassed over killing of Harkat cadre

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, OCT. 24. Pakistan is embarrassed over reports of death of many Harkat-ul-Mujahideen activists in the U.S.-led air raids on Kabul on Tuesday even as hundreds of Afghan tribal chiefs and clerics began a two-day conclave at Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province, to debate on the `post- Taliban' scenario.

There was a great deal of drama during the day at the Afghan border as initially the Pakistani border guards refused to allow the bodies of the eight Pakistani militants - reportedly killed in the Kabul air raid yesterday - to be brought into the country. The guards subsequently relented as tension mounted in the port city of Karachi over the delay in the arrival of the bodies.

The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Mr. Riaz Mohammad Khan, maintained that Islamabad had no information on the death of the alleged Pakistani militants in Kabul. It had been repeatedly urging the Taliban, even before the September 11 attacks, not to allow any Pakistanis to be trained or sheltered on its soil.

``We have been asking the Taliban government to hand over persons who are convicted or wanted in cases in Pakistan reportedly hiding in different parts of Afghanistan. We have no information about any Pakistanis who have crossed over to Afghanistan. I am not in a position to confirm or deny the death of Pakistanis in the Kabul air raid.''

The incident should be a matter of concern to the Musharraf Government as the stated position of the regime after the U.S. decision of freezing the Harkat's assets was that the organisation did not exist in Pakistan.

We will kill Americans,says Taliban envoy

Reuters reports:

The Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, today vowed that the movement would not hand over Osama bin Laden, even at the cost of every life in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was ready to attack the U.S. - if only it had the resources - and vowed to kill Americans in revenge for the killing of Afghans.

``We are not going to hand over Osama bin Laden to them,'' Mullah Zaeef said, ``if they were to kill all of the nation of Afghanistan, we will not hand over Osama because we have law, we have respect for the honour of Afghanistan, we have the culture of Afghanistan and this is against the Afghan culture.''

Though negotiation was not ruled out, his country was ready to fight to the last drop of its blood in defence of honour.

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