WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf wanted to visit Kandahar, Afghanistan, after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States to convince Taliban rulers to expel Osama bin Laden but they refused to see him.
Pakistani diplomatic sources told United Press International on Wednesday that soon after the terror attacks, Pakistan informed the Taliban that Musharraf wanted to visit Kandahar to meet their leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
"The Taliban made it very obvious that Musharraf was not welcome. They were hand in glove with bin Laden and al Qaida and were not willing to listen to any argument," said a Pakistani diplomat.
Blaming bin Laden for arranging the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, the United States had asked Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers to expel the Saudi fugitive if they wanted to avoid a U.S. attack. The Americans waited for almost a month for a positive response from the Taliban before launching their offensive on Oct. 7.
Soon after Sept. 11, Musharraf sent his intelligence chief and other senior officials to convince the Taliban to surrender bin Laden. When the first mission failed, he sent another, which also included prominent religious scholars. "But the Taliban refused to listen to them and continued to insist that bin Laden was their guest and they will never part with him," said the Pakistani diplomat.
"It was at this stage that Musharraf showed an interest in visiting Mullah Omar and personally ask him to hand over bin Laden to the Americans. The reclusive Taliban leader simply refused to see him," the diplomat said.
He said the efforts to convince Taliban to accept the U.S. demand also failed "because some in the Pakistani establishment were secretly supporting the Taliban."
Soon after the failure of the two Pakistani missions, Musharraf sacked the chief of his military intelligence, Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, who twice visited Kandahar, apparently to persuade the Taliban to give in. But now Pakistani officials say that he was one of those who secretly sympathized with the Taliban.
Pakistan was Taliban's main supporter and one of the only three countries that recognized the group as the legitimate government in Kabul. Pakistan retained its relations with the Taliban even after the other two -- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- broke diplomatic ties with the religious militia.
However, after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Musharraf, who is visiting Washington, dumped his Taliban allies and joined the U.S.-led war on terror. He also provided military bases to U.S. forces in Pakistan for operations into Afghanistan.
