Safe havens easy to find: Osama

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, OCT. 6. The Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man by the U.S. and its allies, has reportedly claimed that he has no difficulty in finding a safer place outside Afghanistan as his hideouts ranged from Indonesia to Algeria, Chechnya to Kashmir and Bosnia to Sudan.

In an interview to the Karachi-based Urdu weekly Takbeer, Osama had been quoted as saying that there was no problem in finding hideouts from where he could carry out his mission as he had several safer places in a number of countries.

It appears the magazine has reproduced the purported interview with Osama carried by its sister publication, Ummat a few days ago. The magazine has not said how and where it had obtained the interview.

In the past, whenever such interviews in the name of greatest Osama appeared, the position of the Taliban militia had been that they were concocted, as the Saudi dissident had no communication facilities with him. However, the Taliban did not contradict a statement attributed to Osama after the September 11 incidents denying his involvement in the attacks on the U.S. cities.

``I am not afraid of death because I have to kiss martyrdom one day and I pray God to ordain martyrdom,'' he reportedly told the magazine. He has been quoted as saying that since he had become the ``slave of God Almighty'', he cannot accept hegemony of any powers on the earth for fear of risk to life.

Osama said he considered Pakistan a sacred land and abode of pure people saying that these people would protect him without caring for their lives. ``Pakistan is a great hope for the Muslims of the entire world''.

Osama has been quoted as saying that fighting for the security of Pakistan was the greatest ``jehad'' (holy war) as Pakistan was the ``fort of Islam''. He also claimed that freezing of the al- Qaeda assets would make no difference because the organisation had more than three such alternative financial systems that are quite free and independent.

Well-educated people were running affairs of these institutions and the number of these people was in lakhs and not in hundreds. He denied involvement of any of his compatriot in the suicide attacks on the U.S., saying Islam prohibited killing of innocent people and how he or his any companion could dare to violate the Islamic teachings.

He said only those people who had a hand in dreaded attacks on the U.S. were hell bent upon pitting Muslims against Christians with an apparent motive to see stability of their civilisation and culture. He claimed that these attacks might be the handiwork of Israel, Russia, India or Serbia.

He said the main task of al-Qaeda was to awaken the Muslims so that they could wage a ``jehad'' against the ``infidels''. He said, ``we are not against any Muslim country rather we against those Muslim rulers who are out to make the countrymen slaves of infidels''.

He said: ``We are in favour of launching armed struggle against these Muslim rulers. We are not against the U.S., rather we are against its diabolic system and policy. This system of the U.S. is in the hands of the Jews and their first priority is Israel''. He said the Americans were the slaves of these Jews but they have not yet understood it. He said Americans were bound to follow those policies that Jews were making for them.

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Section  : International
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