Taliban grants Osama citizenship

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 9. The Taliban has granted citizenship to the Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden, and four other leaders of terrorist groups, a report of the Russian news agency Ria Novosti said quoting Pakistani News Service (PNS).

``Now Sheikh Osama is no longer our guest but a citizen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and his extradition is out of the question,'' one of the Taliban fighters told the PNS in Kandahar. The source, however, did not specify whether Osama had applied for citizenship or was granted it on the initiative of the Taliban leadership.

The other four granted citizenship are former Egyptian citizens, Aiman-al-Zawahiri and Sheikh Asim Abd-ur-Rahman, the ring leaders of the banned Islamic Jehad, and Al-Qaeda's commander-in-chief, Saif ul-Adil Abu Hafez, and his deputy, Mohammad Atef. They are on the list of suspects wanted by the FBI as accomplices in the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11.

- UNI

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