London: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammed Omar was spotted last week in Pakistani city of Quetta and charged Islamabad with "turning a blind eye" to terrorism in its border areas.

"We have received information that Mullah Omar was seen praying in a mosque in Quetta 10 days ago," Karzai said in an interview to 'The Times'.

Identifying the mosque as one in Quetta, Karzai accused Pakistan of "turning a blind eye" to terrorism in its border regions.

Mullah Omar, who has a $ 25 million bounty on his head, comes after Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein as the man American-led coalition forces would most like to hold. There have been no confirmed sightings of the one-eyed cleric since the end of the Afghan war, but he has periodically taunted the West with taped messages urging attacks on coalition forces.

Karzai described Quetta as the "terrorists' stronghold" and urged President Pervez Musharraf to stop hard-line Islamic groups from providing sanctuary and support to those responsible for the recent surge in violence in Afghanistan, which has left over 400 people dead in the last four months.

Pakistan Government should take immediate action, particularly, against clerics who, he said, were openly recruiting volunteers from madrasas in Baluchistan and Northwest Frontier Province, which are governed by pro-Taliban parties. "The recruitment is being carried with the connivance of local authorities in border provinces," he said.

PTI