Washington, September 25, 2006
Three days ahead of the trilateral summit with US President George W Bush and Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has said the Al- Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is "probably" in Pakistan and he can be captured if "collectively tried".
"He (Osama) is not in Afghanistan. I can tell you that for sure," Karzai said during NBC's "Meet the Press" programme.
When asked if he is in Pakistan, the Afghan leader replied, "Probably he is there. That's what the reports say now that come across".
Asked to comment on a report of the Rand Corporation, which was privately endorsed by official circles, that essentially accused the Pakistani government and forces of being in collusion with the Taliban, he said, "We have a serious problem in this regard.
"When I said we must go to the sources of terrorism, where they are trained, where they are equipped, where they are given money, where they are given motivation and sent to kill international coalition forces, engineers, doctors, Afghans, that's what I meant."
Pressed on whether he is talking about Pakistan, he said, "Whatever the source is". He also made the point that Kabul will be happy if Musharraf's deal with the tribal chiefs is implemented.
"... If that is implemented, we will be very happy. But unfortunately, right after the signing of the agreement, we saw that two tribal chiefs in Pakistan were killed in that area by the terrorists, by the Taliban, and an Afghan governor in the neighbourhood of that area of that was killed by a suicide bomber.
"So the trend since then is not good. But we will have to wait and see as to whether the truce, as it is agreed upon, is going to be implemented or will be violated," Karzai said.
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