Posted on 11/16/2003 12:00:54 PM PST by Lessismore
Moscow, Nov. 16. (UNI): Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali has said that international terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar are hiding in the north-western province of Pakistan.
"They are most likely hiding in Pakistan's north-western province bordering Afghanistan," Jalali told RIA Novosti news agency at the end of his three-day visit to Moscow.
"This is a mountainous area inhabited mainly by the Pushtu, which enjoys a great deal of autonomy and independence in domestic affairs. These mountains are harbouring many of the al-Qaeda supporters and Talibans," he said.
Jalali, who held wide-ranging talks with Russian Interior Minister, Boris Gryzlov, said the "ways to step up cooperation between the two countries' security agencies topped the agenda of his parleys with top-level officials of the Russian Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the State Committee For Fighting Drug Trafficking and the Foreign Ministry."
The sides reached an agreement that a team of experts of Afghan security agencies would soon visit Russia to discuss joint plans of action against drug trafficking, illegal migration and international terrorism, the Afghan Interior Minister said.
He said that extremists' attempts to thwart the internationally supported reforms in Afghanistan were doomed to failure.
"The Afghan people have got tired of war. It is, therefore, not surprising that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a leader of the extremist Pushtu Islamic party of Afghanistan, who had until recently been in exile in Iran, has declared jihad against the Karzai government and the USA, but found no support among Afghans," Jalali pointed out.
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