Officials said today that they had no information indicating that Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan and took issue with reports that U.S. and Pakistani forces had launched a major new military operation to capture the fugitive al Qaeda leader. “This is totally false, and we don’t know where Osama is,” Information Minister Rashid Ahmed told reporters. “The people who have given this statement are totally wrong. We don’t know anything. He is not in Pakistan.” Rashid’s statement followed media reports that Pakistani and U.S. forces had stepped up their search for bin Laden on the basis of intelligence gleaned from the arrest last Saturday of a top al Qaeda lieutenant, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Both here and in Washington, rumors continued to suggest that bin Laden’s arrest may be imminent. This evening, a top official in the southwest Pakistani province of Baluchistan announced that U.S. and Afghan forces operating in neighboring Afghanistan had captured two of bin Laden’s sons — a claim that was promptly denied in Washington and later by Pakistani officials. Full Story
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