Musharraf's fiercest critic denies he is hiding the elusive al-Qa'ida leader

The radical Muslim cleric Maulana Fazalur Rehman, who lives in Pakistan, has denied vehemently a claim by the Afghan defence ministry that he is harbouring Osama bin Laden.

"This is a political gimmick," Mullah Rehman said yesterday from his home in the north-west of the country, where he is under house arrest. "How is it possible that Osama bin Laden could be under our protection while Fazalur Rehman is under house arrest in Pakistan? And how could bin Laden arrive in Pakistan when along every inch [of the border] there is a Pakistani soldier?" he told al-Jazeera television.

But Mullah Rehman has supporters in many towns on Pakistan's porous 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan, and if Mr bin Laden were to succeed in crossing over from the White Mountains, they would offer the best hope of safe asylum.

The cleric runs a chain of fundamentalist seminaries, or madrassahs, from his home in the scruffy but prosperous town of Dera Ishmail Khan in North West Frontier Province.

But he is also a political figure of national importance, who served as chairman of Pakistan's standing committee of foreign affairs under Benazir Bhutto. Since 11 September, he has been President Pervez Musharraf's most strident critic, and his organisation, Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Islam, whose main support base is in parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier and Baluchistan provinces, has been behind all the biggest protests in Pakistan against the war on terrorism.

On 7 October, General Musharraf put Mullah Rehman under house arrest. A couple of weeks later I went to see if it was still possible to interview him. The posse of policemen outside his concrete villa waved me in.

The cleric's rhetoric is a cocktail of blandly outrageous assertions and more interesting comments that suggest he has a shrewd political mind. In the former category was his explanation for the hand behind 11 September. Repeating what everyone in the Pakistani bazaar "knows", he said the Jews were behind the attacks. America was deliberately and exclusively attacking civilians, he also asserted. Mr bin Laden was blameless, he said. "He doesn't have the resources." So if he was not involved, why, I asked, had Osama rejoiced in them? "It is only human to be glad when bad things happen to your enemy," he said.

Pakistani analysts were surprised that Mullah Rehman managed to mobilise comparatively few protesters, even after the US bombing began. What, I asked him, had they achieved? "Government policy has changed as a result of our protests," he claimed. "The government offers only limited support to America ... And thanks to us, America cannot attack Pakistan."

The minority he represents has never obtained more than 5 per cent of the vote in general elections. Mr Musharraf said the fundamentalists amounted to only 15 per cent of the population. "Well, 15 per cent is a big part of the population," Mr Rehman said. "We would ask the government, what percentage do you represent?"

After my audience was over I was taken at once into custody by the police. Having been happy to allow me to provide publicity for the cleric, they now claimed to be so worried for my safety that they insisted I left town as fast as possible.

When I did so the next morning, I travelled up through the North West Frontier Province, andwas mobbed by the local people, eager to offer me tea but even more eager to let me know what a hero Mr bin Laden and the Taliban were.

The striped black and white flag of Mullah Rehman's Jamiat fluttered above every madrassah. If Mr Rehman has taken Osama under his wing, there are plenty of places in which he could hide him where the authorities would receive a hostile reception.