Pakistan denies Bin Laden arrest

Pakistan denies Bin Laden arrest

Bin Laden has a $27m bounty on his head

The Pakistani authorities have dismissed a report that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been arrested on Pakistani territory.

A high-ranking official in Pakistan's counter-terrorism centre told the BBC that the report was not true.

US officials in Washington also said they had no information to back the report, made by a Pakistani politician in Islamabad.

There have been widespread reports in recent days of a major intelligence-led operation in Pakistan and Afghanistan to find Bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda leaders.

Meeting

The official in Pakistan's counter-terrorism centre described Wednesday's report on Bin Laden as "frivolous".

The claim of Bin Laden's capture was made by a Pakistani politician, Murtaza Pooya, in an interview with Iranian radio.

He said the al-Qaeda leader was being held by members of the Pakistan and US intelligence services.

On Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed that a suspected al-Qaeda leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, claimed to have met Bin Laden in December.

Rumours of a recent meeting between the Sheikh Mohammed, said to be the mastermind of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, and Bin Laden had been circulating since Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan earlier this month.

US forces in Afghanistan, as well as officials in Pakistan, have announced that they have detained a number of men with suspected links to al-Qaeda recently.

The BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner, says intelligence analysts believe the West may now be closer to catching Bin Laden than at any time in the last 16 months.

Million-dollar bounty

Acting on information obtained from interrogations and from material seized in Pakistan, US intelligence is directing a major manhunt in the region of the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The search involves US and Pakistani agents, local informers and a number of US special operations troops.

Operations are believed to be focusing on Balochistan and the wild mountainous region further north.

Our security correspondent says the elusive al-Qaeda leader may well be running out of hiding places but those who know him and who have met him say he will never give himself up.

It would take an operation of exceptional stealth to catch him unawares.