PESHAWAR, Jan 4: A former Taliban diplomat has said Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, Osama bin Laden and Hezb-i- Islami leader Gulbaddin Hekmatyar have reached an agreement to launch coordinated attacks on the American forces in Afghanistan.

Naseer Ahmad Rohi, who was Taliban’s first secretary in Abu Dhabi in the UAE until October 2001, claimed Hikmatyar met Mulla Omar in Uruzgan in southwestern Afghanistan last month in a one-to-one meeting to discuss a joint strategy against the American forces.

“They were in full agreement on the liberation of Afghanistan, holding of free elections in accordance with the Islamic principles as and when the Mujahideen liberate the country and punishment for those who are collaborating with the Americans,” Rohi told a select group of journalists.

He went on to say that Hekmatyar and Taliban had divided areas between them on the basis of their respective strength and influence to carry out operations against the American forces in an effective manner.

Naseer claimed that he had met Al Qaeda leader in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region about a fortnight ago. He would not say where but he did say that Osama had recovered from the chest wounds he had suffered during the Tora Bora bombings and was now in good health. He asserted that Osama was accompanied by his wife and children.

He said Osama was accompanied by a group of Uzbek Mujahideen under the command of Qari Tahir Yaldesh and some Chechen and Arab comrades. About Aiman Al Zawahri, Naseer claimed that the Egyptian doctor had left the region and was no longer in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said that Zawahri’s two wives and children were killed in the Tora bombing and he left the region two months after that incident.