Taliban denies closure of its offices in Pak.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JAN. 21. The Taliban has denied as ``baseless' reports in the Pakistani press that Islamabad has closed down all its offices, following the slapping of United Nations Security Council sanctions on the fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan.

The Taliban Ambassador in Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, told The Hindu that ``even the United Nations resolution does not talk of closing down of our offices. So where is the question''.

When contacted, the Pakistan Foreign office Additional Secretary and official spokesman, Mr. Riaz Mohammad Khan, said the resolution required the member-countries to ``scale down'' the strength of the diplomatic missions of the Taliban, and Pakistan was ascertaining the strength of the mission staff in the country.

Mr. Khan told a news conference on Saturday that Pakistan would abide by the resolution on the sanctions. In a separate interview to a television network, the Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, said Pakistan, in co-operation with Afghanistan, would do its best to mitigate the sufferings of Afghans caused by the sanctions.

The report in The News, (since denied by the Taliban Ambassador), said the Interior Ministry had sent a communication to all four provinces ordering immediate closure of all offices of the Taliban and the Ariana Airlines (official airline of Afghanistan), besides freezing of funds and other financial assets of the Afghanistan-based Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden.

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