Author: Reuters
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 30, 2002
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=17553330
Defence Minister George Fernandes
said that Osama bin Laden was in hiding in Pakistan, drawing an immediate
denial from Islamabad.
"We have information the man is
around and he is somewhere in Pakistan. We had it from unimpeachable
sources," George Fernandes told Britain's Channel Four News.
A spokesman for Pakistan's President
Pervez Musharraf told the programme it was "Indian propaganda" and
said Fernandes was "talking through his hat".
The United States blames Bin Laden
and his al-Qaeda network for the September 11 attacks on New York
and Washington.
Fernandes said the last sightings
of Bin Laden in Pakistan had been three months ago but there was
"no reason to believe that the situation has changed".
Asked whether Musharraf knew of
the situation, Fernandes said: "The Pakistani intelligence -- the
ISI -- know where he is. General Musharraf is the commander in chief
of the armed forces and the ISI reports to him."
But Fernandes added: "The ISI is
capable of doing its own thing. I can't say therefore for certain
whether Musharraf knows about the man."
Earlier this month, Abdel-Bari Atwan,
editor of the London-based Arab newspaper al-Quds, who has close
ties to Bin Laden's associates, said they had told him the Saudi-born
militant was alive and planning another attack on the United States.
Bin Laden made a series of defiant
videotaped broadcasts on television as U.S. warplanes pounded Afghanistan
to destroy al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But recently, he has stayed
out of sight, raising questions over whether he survived the bombing.
Last week, US Defence Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld said the United States still did not know if bin
Laden was dead or alive.
Musharraf's spokesman Major General
Rashid Qureshi told the programme: "Frankly, it's typical of Mr George
Fernandes to talk through his hat."
"This is a typical example of Indian
propaganda which is meant just to discredit Pakistan. If there had
been any evidence of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden I'm quite
confident...the United States would have been the first to know,"
he added.