US runs ‘Wanted’ ads on Pakistan TV for Bin Laden

ISLAMABAD - The United States launched a campaign on Pakistani television and radio in the past week to advertise multi-million-dollar rewards for information leading to the arrest of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders.

A 30-second television commercial shows pictures of bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, who both have US$25 million (NZ$34m) rewards on their heads, and 12 other terrorist suspects, including Mullah Mohammad Omar, the leader of Afghanistan's vanquished Taleban militia.

"State-run Radio Pakistan is running these commercials since last Wednesday in Urdu, Pashto, Baluchi and Sindhi languages," Greggory Crouch, press attache of the US Embassy in Islamabad, told Reuters.

Private television channel Geo is also running the US appeal, and talks are on to air it on state television, he said.

This is the first time that the United States has used these methods in Pakistan, although officials routinely speculate that the al Qaeda leader is hiding somewhere on the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The reaction of Pakistanis living in these border areas was mixed.

"Even if one terrorist is arrested because of these advertisements, it would be worth it," said Gul Baran, a 35-year-old man from Chaman, a frontier town in Pakistan's western province of Baluchistan.

But Juma Khan, another resident of the town, was outraged.

"These advertisements are an insult to Muslims. Pakistani television and radio channels and newspapers should not stoop so low for the sake of money."

In Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal area, where the Pakistani army has concentrated efforts to kill or capture al Qaeda linked militants, bin Laden was a hero to many people but he could still be betrayed.

"The American propaganda proved effective in Afghanistan and helped them to catch many Taleban. It can also work here," said Muzaffar Khan a resident of Wana.

- REUTERS