Pakistan derides latest Bin Laden threat

Osama bin Laden’s call for Pakistanis to rise up against their US-allied military leader struck a chord among an angry, extremist minority on Friday, but resonated little among the wider public and was dismissed by the government as “ridiculous.”

The al Qaida chief’s audio message, released yesterday, urged Pakistanis to wage a jihad or holy war against President Gen Pervez Musharraf, whose decision to send troops into a pro-Taliban mosque in the capital and against Islamic militants at the Afghan border has stoked an insurgency.