Taliban rebuffs US talks offer

AIP quoted Omar as saying that the United States should be ready to pay compensation and apologise for its missile attack on Afghanistan and Sudan if it was unable to provide proof of terrorist activity in these countries.

8220;It would be a matter of great embarrassment and shame for the United States and its intelligence agencies if America was unable to prove internationally that Osama bin Laden was involved in bombings of US embassies in East Africa and that the pharmaceutical factory in Sudan was making chemical weapons.8221;

A US embassy spokesman in Islamabad today said 8220;We are of course interested in talks with Taliban about bin Laden and other international terrorist threats.8221;

The US says Saudi dissident bin Laden8217;s groups are responsible for the blasts in Kenya and Tanzania. Laden denies any involvement.

Meanwhile, media reports said that Laden is reported to have maintained close links with Pakistani clergy and security agencies, besides sharing operational facilities and finances with Kashmiri militant groups in Pakistan, media reports said.

Laden is reported to have a substantial number of sympathisers among the Pakistani clergy who have been paying regular visits to meet him at his terror camps in Afghanistan.

Most of the powerful Pakistani clergy, who run their own private armies, as a front for Pakistan8217;s Inter-Services Intelligence ISI have been used as channels of communication between the intelligence agencies and the Saudi terror chief, the Pakistani media said.

The Pakistani intelligence agencies, particularly the ISI have been unnerved and taken aback by the US Cruise missile attacks on their camps in Afghanistan with reports speaking of senior Pakistani Army officers expressing that US forces had specifically targeted the Pakistani camps, the reports said.

The nervousness and shock of the Pakistani Army8217;s top brass to the missile attacks is evident with the growing number of 8220;selective sensitive leaks8221; being made by the ISI through its coterie of its front news organisations indicating the Army8217;s bewilderment on how to keep hidden its links to terror groups and seek to divert international focus from itself.

A report by a network called News Intelligence Unit8217; spoke of authorities giving a report to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after the US attacks saying Pakistani camps8217; were showered with missiles, despite the fact they were situated 20 kms away from bin Laden8217;s exclusively 8220;state-of-the-art guerrilla training facilities.8221;

Sharif was also told that strong religious groups in Pakistan were trying to put together their act to devise a common strategy to place the Government under pressure to severe all ties with United States, the reports said.

The reports quoted the Pakistani officials now fearing that since 8220;the most powerful Army and the world8217;s most dangerous terrorist organisation have declared war on each other8221;, the battle could be fought on Pakistani soil.

The Pakistani officials, media report said, now admitted that it was going to be a long time before the Americans who, had abandoned Pakistan after a stern travel advisory from the State Department last week, would return to their normal business in Pakistan.

The reports said Pakistan military establishment might think that bin Laden was becoming expendable and may ask the Government of Nawaz Sharif and the Taliban in Afghanistan to hold secret parleys with US for handing him over.

The Pakistan intelligence, however, fear a big backlash to any handing over. Senior officials said 8220;If this happens, then you may see that a brewing Islamic revolution in Pakistan could be round the corner8221; adding 8220;either way the military establishment is sitting pretty.8221;