A top Taliban leader in Pakistan said in remarks aired on Saturday his group would protect and guard Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri if they turned up in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. “I have not met Osama or Zawahri and they did not come to our region. We hope to see them and if they show up in our area we will protect them with our bodies and souls,” Mullah Mohammad Nazir told Al Jazeera television in remarks dubbed into Arabic. US intelligence chief John Negroponte said on Thursday Al Qaeda leaders were holed up in a secure hideout in Pakistan, but the Pakistani government says the United States has not given it any information about their presence in Pakistan.