Govt denies Osama’s son visits Afghanistan in Oct

KABUL (Pajhwok): The UN claims that Osama bin Laden’s son visited Afghanistan last October and the country could become a safe haven for “terrorist groups”, but the Afghan government rejected the allegation as untrue.

BBC citing a UNSC Monitoring Team’s report has said that Osama bin Laden’s son, Abdullah, has visited Afghanistan in October last year for meeting with the Taliban.

Osama bin Laden was killed in a US forces raid in Pakistan in 2011.

The UNSC report says Afghanistan could become a safe haven for ‘Al-Qaeda and a number of other terrorist groups and Mohammad Salahuddin Abdul HalimZaidan was expected to replace another al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri in the country.

The report said that al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS), which is led by Osama Mehmood and his deputy Atif Yahya Ghouri, “retains a presence in Afghanistan, in the provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, Nimruz, Paktika and Zabul, where the group fought alongside the Taliban” against the previous government.

However, the Afghan foreign ministry in a statement said that the UNSC report on increasing foreign groups’ activities in Afghanistan is untrue.

“The Islamic Emirate deems such reports lacking evidence, documents and addresses neither in the interest of Afghanistan, the region or the world,” the statement said.

The Islamic Emirate has implemented its commitments laid out in the Doha Agreement and allows none to pose a threat from Afghan soil to any other country, and in return, expects the same from others, the source added.

The statement said, “The Islamic Emirate as an accountable government will play a positive role towards security and stability of Afghanistan, the region and the world utilizing the existing facilities and opportunities, and hopes that other parties including the UN Security Council would also grasp these facts and make responsible statements.”

Deputy government spokesman, InamullahSamangani, also told Pajhwok Afghan News that Osama bin Laden’s son did not visit Afghanistan and rejected the report as untrue and baseless.

mds/ma

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