`U.S. tried to strike deal with Taliban'

WASHINGTON,OCT. 29. American officials held at least 20 secret and official meetings with the Taliban in the last three years to strike a deal on bringing the terrorist mastermind, Osama bin Laden, to justice, a media report said today. The meetings went on till a few days before the September 11 attacks, according to the Washington Post.

Quoting Government sources, it said the Taliban representatives stressed repeatedly that they would hand over Osama if Washington was ready to meet their conditions. But the U.S. State Department was not ready to budge from its stand that Osama should be tried by the U.S. judiciary.

``The exchanges lie at the heart of a long and largely untold history of diplomatic efforts between the State Department and Afghanistan's regime that paralleled covert CIA actions to take bin Laden.''

- PTI

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Section  : International
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