While the world is commemorating the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the whereabouts of the alleged mastermind of the strike, Osama Bin Laden (OBL), still remains a mystery.

On Sept. 11, 2001, alleged associates of OBL targeted the twin skyscrapers of the World Trade Center in New York and Pentagon in Washington. The deadly strikes forced the sole superpower to face new safety challenges in the new century.

Immediately after the attacks, US President Bush pointed the finger at al-Qaida chief OBL and warned his host Mullah Mohammad Omar, the elusive supreme leader of Taliban and head of the world's most isolated regime, to hand over the suspect.

Omar, who termed the attacks on the United States as a wrath ofGod, rejected President Bush's stern warning by saying, "Afghans cannot hand their guest over to his enemy."

The response provoked US leader to invade Afghanistan and topple the fundamentalist regime and associate movements in this part of the world.

In nearly four years since Taliban's fall, thousands of the regime's loyalists and their foreign supporters including Arabs and Pakistanis have been arrested but OBL and his host Omar are still at large.

US leaders as well as Pakistan have several times claimed cornering OBL and predicted his arrest but none has been realized.

Pakistani leader General Pervez Musharaf has more than once said that Ben Laden with a small group of his armed supporters wason constant move in the mountainous tribal areas along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The triangle forces of the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan have frequently combed the area but the chief suspect of the Sept. 11 attacks has not been located.

The US persistent failure to spot OBL or his host Mullah Omar has raised many questions among the Afghans about the US seriousness over the arrest of the king of terror and the ongoing war on terrorism.

"Osama can be an excuse for the US leader to push ahead his agenda in the region, if not so, he should be at the White House as the US military have combed the whole Afghanistan and Pakistan,"said a 48-year-old ordinary Afghan, Mohammad Akbar.

On the other hand, intellectuals believe that the alleged architect of the Sept. 11 attacks could be hidden in Pakistan's semi-autonomous Pashtun-belt tribal area along the porous border with Afghanistan.

"OBL might have been enjoying the hospitality of extremists in tribal areas as the government of Pakistan has little control overit," journalist Ahmad Shafae maintained.

Bashir Ahmad, another journalist and writer, observed that little access of Islamabad to tribal areas has facilitated OBL to take refuge among the deeply religious and valiant Pashtuns ethnicon the other side of the border.

"Tribalism in conjunction with Islamism in the deeply religiouspeople of tribal-belt Pashtuns has enabled OBL and his loyalists to survive as neither Pakistan nor US military has control over the tribal-belt region," Bashir Ahmad maintained.

Washington has launched big manhunt military operations in the region and also announced 25 million US dollars head price, but failed to capture OBL.

"Osama can be an excuse to justify US military presence in the region. If not so, he would have already been detained as he is not stronger than former Iraqi leader Sadam Hussein," maintained retired teacher Emal Khan, 69, while referring to the surprise capture of the former Iraqi leader.

On the other hand, the US military has been rejecting such notions and says the United States would continue to trace the alleged architect of the Sept. 11 attacks until he is captured andbrought to justice.

"Everyone including Afghans and Americans remembers the Sept. 11 attacks. We want nothing more than to bring that man (OBL) to justice. There is no doubt about that," spokesman of US-led coalition troops Jams Yonts observed.

"We are doing everything we can inside Afghanistan and through the help of the bordering central Asian states as we are looking for that individual," he noted.

However, he failed to give a date about the possible arrest of Osama, only said that "we have not stopped our action to find him."

As the phenomenon of Osama and his network, al-Qaida has been haunting in the globe particularly in the United States since Sept.11, 2001, and the question of whereabouts of the chief suspect of the attacks will squeeze curious brains for the years to come.

Source: Xinhua