Tribal leader denies aiding Taliban, bin Laden eligible to stay under tribal law

Описание: (21 Apr 2007)
1. Wide of Wana's main bazaar
2. People walking around bazaar
3. Men drinking tea
4. Man with covered face holding gun and radio
5. Wide of news conference
6. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Maulvi Nazir, tribal militia leader:
"We did not meet Osama and he did not come here."
7. Close-up of Nazir's hand
8. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Maulvi Nazir, tribal militia leader:
"If he comes here and lives here according to the law (tribal law) and does not do any thing. We have always stood up against cruelty. He neither came here nor have we met him."
9. Close-up of cameras
10. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Maulvi Nazir, tribal militia leader:
"I did not meet with Mullah Omar by myself."
11. Mid of journalists
12. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Maulvi Nazir, tribal militia leader:
"We have no relation with these people."
13. Wide of news conference
14. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Maulvi Nazir, tribal militia leader:
"Taliban leadership is limited to Afghanistan. This is Tribal land and Pakistani land and they are not interfering here."
14. Close-up of cameras
15. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Maulvi Nazir, tribal militia leader:
"(The) Taliban are not divided and they are carrying their activities inside Afghanistan on their own. They have safe places in Helmand, Zabul and Ghazni. These areas are free, they don't need to come here for shelter, they are living in their free areas."
16. Wide of Wana bazaar
17. Local men with guns checking vehicles
18. Tribal people dancing a traditional dance in celebration of expelling foreign militants
19. Men dancing with guns
20. Close of mechanic working on vehicle
21. Wide of men constructing their home
22. Wide of Wana countryside
STORYLINE:
A tribal militia leader in a lawless region of Pakistan denied on Friday that he has maintained his former links to the Taliban, but added that under tribal law shelter would be provided to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, should they need it.
The comments were made by Maulvi Nazir in Wana, South Waziristan.
Near the Afghan border, the area is regarded as a possible hiding place for fugitive al-Qaida leaders and a base for Taliban fighters to launch attacks into neighbouring Afghanistan.
"We did not meet Osama and he did not come here," Nazir told journalists who travelled to the village.
Despite a fierce suspicion of outsiders in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal regions, Pashtun tribal custom dictates an offer of hospitality to anyone seeking shelter in their home.
Nazir said that bin Laden would be safe under tribal law if he came to South Waziristan.
"If he comes here and lives here according to the law (tribal law) and does not do any thing," said Nazir, who then reiterated, "he neither came here nor have we met him."
He denied any knowledge of their whereabouts.
"We have no relation with these people." he said.
Nazir acknowledged fighting with the Taliban militia during the 1990s, but not since its ousting from power in Afghanistan in late 2001.

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