ISLAMABAD, 21 April 2007 — A tribal leader, who was backed by the Pakistan Army in a campaign to evict Central Asian Al-Qaeda-linked militants from tribal lands, said yesterday he would provide refuge to Osama Bin Laden.
Mullah Nazir said he had never met the fugitive Al-Qaeda leader, but was ready to protect him in South Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border, for the cause of “oppressed people.”
“If he comes here and wants to live according to tribal traditions, then we can provide protection to him because we support oppressed people,” Nazir told journalists in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.
Around 300 foreign militants and up to 40 tribal fighters, led by Mullah Nazir and backed by the army, have been killed in clashes in recent weeks.
The foreign militants were believed to have been commanded by Tahir Yuldashev, head of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group that became linked to the Al-Qaeda network while in Afghanistan.
Nazir, 32, and married with a son and a daughter, announced an amnesty for foreigners and their local supporters if they surrendered, but warned that fighters loyal to Yuldashev would not be spared.
He said Uzbek fighters were reported crying over the death of one of their leaders but he was not sure whether it was Yuldashev.
Nazir ducked a question whether he was sending militants across the border into Afghanistan but said he did go to Afghanistan because he had dual nationality. “I have a house in Bermal and have some agriculture land in Kandahar,” he said, referring to border areas in eastern and southern Afghanistan. “When I go there, I side with the Taleban.”
Commenting on Nazir’s statement, Saeedullah Khan, a journalist based in Dera Ismail Khan told Arab News, Nazir is inviting trouble by making such statements.
He said Bin Laden took advantage of Afghan hospitality and ruined the country.
When asked whether tribesmen would support Nazir, Saeedullah said no.
