Title: ISI protecting Osama and Mullah Omar: Afghan govt
Author:  
Publication: Indian Express
Date: Feb 13, 2002
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=7420

Reuters

Dubai, February 12: Afghanistan's interim Interior Minister has accused elements in Pakistan's intelligence service of helping fugitives Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar evade capture by US forces. Yunus Qanooni also told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat daily in an interview published on Tuesday that al Qaeda fighters that had crossed to Pakistan were trying to regroup in a new party.

And he said his government respected Iran as a neighbour and denied that Iran's Revolutionary Guards were operating in his country. US Officials have accused Iran of giving refuge to fleeing fighters from bin Laden's al Qaeda network and plotting to destabilise the new government in Afghanistan. Qanooni said there were two wings in Pakistan, one led by President Pervez Musharraf, who is trying to change the country's traditional support for Afghanistan's ousted Taliban movement, led by Omar.

"The second wing is represented by elements which are still influential in Pakistani intelligence, still clinging to the old strategy," Qanooni said. "Those are probably protecting bin Laden and Mullah Omar, concealing their movements and sheltering leaders of Taliban and al Qaeda."

US forces are hunting Omar and Saudi-born bin Laden, blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks on US cities, but without success. Qanooni said he believed bin Laden was moving across the rugged and long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Taliban leader was probably being protected among the more than two million Pashtun in southern Afghanistan.

"The presence of the two men here or there—even if it was verified—does not mean that it was easy to reach them because each one represents a drop in a big sea," he said. The Minister said of 12,000 estimated al Qaeda members in Afghanistan, between 2,000 to 3,000 had been killed during US air strikes on Afghanistan. Bin Laden was surrounded by up to 18 aides who represented the leadership of al Qaeda, he added.

Qanooni said up to 50,000 Taliban activists are still in Afghanistan and protected by tribes. "Most of them have shaved their beards and changed the shape of their turbans," he said. Asked if he believed the Taliban was gone for good, Qanooni told the Arabic-language newspaper: "It has no chance to come back. But the people are still there. Some of them are trying to regroup in Pakistan in a new formation".

He said the new party, whose Arabic name is Hukkamal-Furqan, had "overt links with Pakistani intelligence". Asked if his government had any information about the presence of Revolutionary Guards in Afghanistan, he said: "Iran is a neighbour we value and respect. As far as I know, there are no Revolutionary Guards or other Iranians inside the country."