Pakistani Leader Musharraf Visits Kabul

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Pakistani Leader Musharraf Visits Kabul

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf arrived in Kabul on Tuesday for his first visit to Afghanistan since interim leader Hamid Karzai took power from the Taliban that Islamabad had backed.

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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf arrived in Kabul on Tuesday for his first visit to Afghanistan since interim leader Hamid Karzai took power from the Taliban that Islamabad had backed.

Security was tight for the leader of Pakistan, one of the few nations to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, as he arrived for talks with Karzai, whose administration was formed from opponents of the ultra-Islamic movement.

Kabul airport was cordoned off, with journalists kept well away from Musharraf, and traffic halted one mile away.

Pakistan abandoned the Taliban after the September 11 attacks on the United States, blamed on Osama bin Laden who was living in Afghanistan as their "guest."

Musharraf then threw his weight behind the U.S.-led war on terror and later supported Karzai's interim government.

The two leaders were expected to hold a news conference before Musharraf returned to Islamabad later in the day and they were sure to face questions on whether a suspected top lieutenant of bin Laden had been captured in Pakistan.

U.S. officials say Abu Zubaydah, an al Qaeda recruiter and member of bin Laden's inner circle, was almost certainly among dozens of people rounded up in raids on three Pakistani cities last week.

Pakistani officials say they do not yet have proof that one of the 20 foreigners detained in raids in Faisalabad, Lahore and Multan was Zubaydah.

But the U.S. officials said the man was now in American custody and, as one put it, "we are virtually certain it is him."

Zubaydah would be the highest ranking al Qaeda member in U.S. custody in the war on terror President Bush declared after the devastating September 11 attacks.

Musharraf's visit is the first by a Pakistani head of government since former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif went to Afghanistan in the early 1990s. Former President Zia ul-Haq also visited in the late 1970s.

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