Islamabad - Taliban spokesmen said yesterday that accused terrorist, Osama bin Laden, and Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, are well and insisted that bin Laden will not be handed over to the US.
Despite growing pressure on Taliban forces, who have been forced to retreat toward the militia's headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, one spokesman said Mullah Omar and bin Laden were still in Afghanistan. "Both are in Afghanistan and there is no harm to them," Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdullah told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).
AIP said it asked the spokesman whether the Taliban was now ready to discuss handing bin Laden to the US. He replied: "There is no change on the Osama issue."
The Taliban has said that the suspected mastermind of the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington is a "guest" and refused demands to hand him over.
The Arab news channel Al-Jazeera said another Taliban spokesman, Mr Mohammad Tayyeb Agha, also pronounced the two wanted men "in good health." Bin Laden and Omar "are inside Afghanistan and in good health, thank God," he was quoted as saying.