 US intelligence officers posted in Pakistan have told their bosses back home that Osama bin Laden may be hiding in the Northern Areas, the northernmost part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
| He was in Kohistan the day before yesterday, at the Wal-Mart, I think... |
The debate about the whereabouts of bin Laden, who is among the Federal Bureau of InvestigationÂ’s ten most wanted fugitives, came alive on Wednesday when an American television network claimed that Pakistani officials had confirmed his presence after tapping a telephone call.
| "Hello, Ma? This is Binny!" |
Army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan
| ... the very model of a modern major general... |
rejected the report, saying no government official would share such sensitive information with the media.
As per US media reports, bin Laden has left was in Pakistan at least twice after September 11, 2001. One report said he was in a Faisalabad hospital and that he escaped before US intelligence learnt of his stay.
"Somebody here to see you, Binny!"
"Tell 'em... ummm... I'm on the bed pan. And bring me my curly-toed slippers!" |
A source in Islamabad said American intelligence officers have also taken note of recent reports that bin Laden distributed a leaflet in North Waziristan calling General Pervez Musharraf a US stooge and exhorting Pakistanis to oust him. The source said that much before the March 2003 arrest of Al QaedaÂ’s chief operations commander Khalid Sheikh Mohammad from Rawalpindi,
the Americans conducted an intelligence-gathering exercise in Gilgit and Chitral districts, in the Northern Areas, to track down bin Laden and Mullah Omar. But their efforts yielded no result.
| ... because they were in Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, respectively... |
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