Audio cassettes are being distributed around southeastern Afghanistan with a recorded message from fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar saying he was safe, witnesses said on Sunday.
Travelers coming from the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar told Reuters that cassettes containing messages from the one-eyed Taliban leader and other clerics were placed outside government offices, hotels and houses on Friday night.
"These audio cassettes also contain a 15-minute speech of Mullah Omar," a traveler said. But it was not clear when and where the message was recorded.
In the recorded message, Mullah Omar says he is safe. "American bombing cannot hurt us, even if they carry it out for 10 years," it says.
He also justifies enforcement of a strict Islamic code during Taliban rule in Afghanistan, saying that Afghan warlords had turned different cities and areas into mini-states before the Taliban movement.
"I challenge all the countries of the world, including the United States, to establish Taliban-like peace in Afghanistan even for a day," Omar says on the tapes.
Other clerics in their messages on the tape describe Mullah Omar as the savior of the Afghan people and a warrior for Islam.
The Taliban were driven from power late last year following a U.S. aerial bombing campaign and ground offensive by the opposition Northern Alliance.
They were targeted for giving shelter to Osama bin Laden, whose al Qaeda network has been blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Taliban and al Qaeda force are believed to have melted among the local population in southeastern Afghanistan or the semi-autonomous tribal areas of Pakistan that border with Afghanistan.
U.S.-led coalition forces have been hunting for bin Laden and Mullah Omar in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan.
(China Daily June 17, 2002)
