Author: HT Correspondent
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: February 1, 2002
That Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir (PoK) is now well known to the US. Bin Laden has been hiding in
Astore in the Northern Areas after fleeing Afghanistan, according to intelligence
intercepts made by US forces based in Pakistan.
But for now, US President George
Bush is reluctant to make a hue and cry over Osama's presence in Pakistan.
One of the reasons behind Washington's invitation to General Pervez Musharraf
is to show him the evidence that's now before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Musharraf's help will be recruited
for an operation in a region the Americans are reluctant to tread on without
unconditional, local support.
Musharraf may not be extending official
hospitality to Bin Laden but he is believed to be aware of the Al-Qaeda
leader's presence in Pakistan. He had tried to deflect attention by twice
claiming that Bin Laden had died. He even told an American interviewer
that Laden had possibly died of kidney failure.
But the US did not buy that line.
Independent investigations, combined with a massive search of all ships
on the Arabian Sea, led to the conclusion that Osama is hiding in the Northern
Areas.
Two American Senators on the Senate
Committee, Bob Graham and John Edwards, recently leaked to newspapers the
fact about Washington's knowledge of Bin Laden's whereabouts.
Under US pressure, the General allowed
the CIA to interrogate two Pakistani nuclear scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin
Mahmud and Chaudhary Abdul Majeed.
CIA director George Tenet visited
Pakistan in early December and provided evidence related to their links
with the Al-Qaeda. He also gave a list of six other nuclear scientists
with known links to Laden's terrorist group.
The CIA also interrogated A.Q. Khan,
who heads a research laboratory named after himself. Atta-ur-Rehman, Musharraf's
Minister for Science and Technology, is also suspected to have links with
the Taliban's programme to develop chemical and biological weapons.
