Evidence enough to indict Osama: Pak.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, OCT. 4. On the eve of the working visit of the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, Pakistan today declared that the material provided by the U.S. certainly provided ``sufficient basis for indictment'' of Osama Bin Laden for his alleged involvement in the September 11 attacks.

The spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, Mr. Riaz Mohammad Khan, told a news conference here that Islamabad continued to believe in the need for sharing the evidence internationally. The announcement that Islamabad was ``satisfied'' with the evidence came even as an emergency meeting of the Taliban Cabinet was held in Kabul to take stock of the situation.

The significance of the declaration by the Musharraf Government that the material provided sufficient basis for indicting Osama cannot be underestimated as Pakistan is the only country which still has diplomatic ties with the Taliban.

There was no evidence either against the Harkat-ul-Ansari or the Al-Rashid Trust, whose accounts had been frozen by Pakistani banks. On whether the evidence pointed to any role by the Taliban regime, he said the question was not relevant.

Mr. Khan said Pakistan had neither approached nor had any intention of contacting the Taliban on the evidence.

On the possibility of a change of government in Afghanistan, he reiterated that Pakistan would not like a hostile set-up in Kabul.

There was no surprise element in the disclosure on the nature of the evidence provided by Washington. The Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, in an interview to CNN on Wednesday had said that the U.S. had presented ``impressive evidence'' of Osama's involvement. He wanted the Bush administration to publicise it all over the world to enable the people to make a fair judgment. Mr. Sattar said that Pakistan had been shown 20 pages of documents, besides an oral presentation.

In a related development, the Northern Alliance Foreign Minister, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, claimed they had received fresh military support from Russia and Iran in their campaign against the Taliban. He said they were in talks with the U.S.

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