Washington, March 28 (PTI): Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf met Taliban supremo Mullah Omar in April 2000 to convince him to expel Osama bin Laden but failed, according to a report released by a commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.

It said the meeting took place at the request of former US President Bill Clinton after he raised the issue during his visit to Pakistan on March 25, 2000.

“The Pakistanis asked for evidence that bin Laden had really ordered the US embassy bombings (in East Africa) a year-and-a-half earlier. In a follow-up meeting the next day with under-secretary of state Thomas Pickering, President Musharraf argued that Pakistan had only limited influence over the Taliban,” the commission report quoted by media said. Despite these reservations, Musharraf “did meet Mullah Omar and did urge him to get rid of bin Laden,” it said.

In early June 2000, according to the report, Pakistan’s interior minister went to Kandahar with Pickering and delivered a joint message to Taliban officials. “But the Taliban seemed immune to such pleas, especially from Pakistani civilians like the interior minister,” it observed.