'100kg in gold' for cartoonist

2006-02-08 21:45

Islamabad - A top Taliban commander on Wednesday offered a reward of 100kg of gold to anyone who kills the person responsible for "blasphemous" cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.

If someone killed the cartoonist responsible for the cartoons in Denmark, the "Taliban will give 100kg of gold", Mullah Dadullah said in a telephone call to AIP from an unknown location, the Pakistan-based private news agency reported.

Dadullah also said the Taliban would give 5kg of gold to anyone who killed a Danish, Norwegian or German soldier, AIP said.

AIP said Dadullah was operating as chief commander of the Taliban waging an anti-government insurgency in Afghanistan.

The agency quoted Dadullah as saying the Taliban's list of would-be suicide bombers had grown since the publication of the cartoons.

Eleven demonstrators have been killed since Friday in violent protests over the cartoons in Afghanistan.

- AFP