International

Omar a coward, says Karzai

Washington: Afghanistan's President on Sunday called the Taliban's fugitive leader a coward, saying Mullah Omar should come out of hiding and face justice.

Hamid Karzai's comments come amid claims, allegedly made by Mr. Omar in an audio tape aired on Sunday by a Pakistani television station, that the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan government lack the wisdom to solve Afghanistan's escalating violence.

Mr. Karzai did not comment on the tape's authenticity. But he told CNN's Late Edition television programme that if Mr. Omar is ``really in charge'' he should come out of hiding and ``face the danger that he is causing to hundreds of young people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It needs guts to do what he's talking about, and he doesn't have it.'' Mr. Omar and the Taliban, Mr. Karzai said, did not represent a threat to Afghanistan's Government. ``They exist in the form of attacking schools, attacking children, killing innocent people,'' he said.'

Osama Bin Laden, deputy Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri and Mr. Omar are ``definitely'' not in Afghanistan,'' Mr. Karzai said. — AP

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