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Gunaratna's book on terror links taken off Malaysian bookshelves

KUALA LUMPUR, Monday (AFP) Major bookstores in Malaysia have stripped their shelves of a book on the al-Qaeda terror network which has outraged the government, but the author argued yesterday that he had been unjustly accused.

The government says the book, Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror by Sri Lankan academic Rohan Gunaratna, was the source of a United Nations document allegedly linking the ruling coalition with Osama bin Laden's terrorist organisation.

Gunaratna told AFP that he had not seen the UN report but insisted he made no such alllegation in his book and urged Malaysians leaders to read it before making accusations against him. "Responsible politicians, before they shoot, should study the problem," he told AFP in a telephone interview from Singapore, where he is an analyst with the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.

Gunaratna said he had written to Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who made the allegation, and had sent him a copy of the book.

Abdullah said the UN report depicted Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's ruling National Front as having "ideological and political links" to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Philippines, which has direct links to al-Qaeda.

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