LONDON, Oct 24: Books written on Afghanistan, Middle East and Pakistan are attracting interest in the UK and other European and western countries following the Sept 11 attacks on America.

Many curious UK readers are after a book called, “Taliban — Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia,” written by a Pakistani author Ahmad Rashid. It was published for the first time 3,000 copies last year in London, but after Sept 11 more than 350,000 copies had been published in the US alone. Demand for the book has increased in the UK as well, with 80,000 paperback copies released recently. The book has been termed as best seller on New York Times.

Similarly, Yossef Bodansky’s book Bin Laden is number two in the best seller lists for paperback. The interest in such topics is not reserved just to books — the film Kandahar, set in Afghanistan — has attracted interest at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), in London, where it is to be screened.