Al Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, urged Muslims in a video broadcast on Sunday to help Pakistan’s earthquake victims even though its government was an ‘‘agent’’ of the United States.‘‘I call on all Muslims and Islamic charity organisations in particular to go to Pakistan and give a helping hand to the victims there,’’ a bespectacled Zawahri said in the tape aired on Al Jazeera.Wearing a white turban and seated beside an assault rifle, Zawahri denounced Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.‘‘We all know that Musharraf’s government is an agent of the United States but despite that I call on all Muslims to run to the help of their brothers in Pakistan,’’ he said.‘‘We all know the United States is against the activities of Islamic charities,’’ said Zawahri, the Egyptian right-hand man of Osama bin Laden. he is wanted by Cairo for anti-government attacks.The tape appeared to have been recorded on October 9, as Zawahri said the earthquake had occurred the day before.Zawahiri, who is believed to be hiding on the Afghan-Pakistani border, said he and his companions were not in the region hit by the earthquake.‘‘How I would have hoped, together with my brothers. To have been among you on that day but the agents of america are standing between us and preventing us from helping our Muslim brothers in time of need,’’ he said.
