New York, Sept 27: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who believes Osama bin Laden is hiding in the rugged mountain peaks that border Pakistan, has said that the al-Qaeda terrorist network in his country has been wiped out. "There is no al-Qaeda network any more in Afghanistan. The al-Qaeda network went away with the Taliban," he said in an interview at his heavily guarded hotel in New York yesterday.
"They are in hiding. Their leadership is in hiding. Their rank and file is in hiding," said Karzai, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly. "They are no longer a visible underground organization." Yet Karzai warned that unless the world increases reconstruction aid and sends more peacekeeping troops, his country could again attract Islamic radicals.
He argued for more international forces to be deployed beyond the Afghan capital and into regions where increasing lawlessness - often caused by thieving warlords and their private armies - is causing ordinary Afghans to long for the security. Karzai, who departs for Canada today to meet with government leaders there, asked the international community to heed his repeated calls for international troops to be sent throughout the country to tackle the relentless insecurity that is undermining his administration and giving Taliban holdouts a freer hand. Bureau Report