Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday called Mulla Omar a coward, saying he should come out of hiding and face justice, AP reported. Karzai's comments come amid claims, allegedly made by Omar in an audio tape aired Sunday by a Pakistani television station, that the US-led coalition and the Afghan government lack the wisdom to solve Afghanistan's escalating violence.Karzai did not comment on the tape's authenticity. But he told CNN's Late Edition television program that if Omar is "really in charge" he should come out of hiding and "face the danger that he is causing to hundreds of young people in Afghanistan and Pakistan".
"It needs guts to do what he's talking about, and he doesn't have it," he said. Omar and the Taliban, Karzai said, do not represent a threat to Afghanistan's government. "They exist in the form of attacking schools, attacking children, killing innocent people," he said. "They are no match for our power." Bin Laden, deputy Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri and Omar are "definitely" not in Afghanistan, Karzai said. "They don't dare come to Afghanistan," he added.