Pakistan leader: Bin Laden location unknown

updated 11:12 a.m. ET June 25, 2005

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan’s president said Saturday there were no authentic reports on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and anyone who believed the al-Qaida chief was in his country should give his location.

The comments by Gen. Pervez Musharraf came more than a week after U.S. Ambassador for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad claimed that bin Laden and fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar were not believed to be in Afghanistan.

Khalilzad did not say where the two were believed to be hiding.

“There are a lot of people who say that Osama bin Laden is here in Pakistan,” Musharraf told reporters in Islamabad before leaving for an official visit to Saudi Arabia. “Please come and show us where he is or tell us where he is. We will act on such information.

“He (bin Laden) could be anywhere.”

Working with Afghanistan
Pakistan is a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. Musharraf said Pakistan was working closely with Afghanistan in that effort, taking steps to secure its border to prevent militants from crossing between the two countries.

“There is a total and complete understanding between us,” he said of Pakistan’s relations with Kabul.

Musharraf — who abandoned support of Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime after the Sept. 11 attacks — spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai twice this week. Musharraf would only say that “a small difference of opinion was discussed and resolved.”

Last week, Karzai spokesman Jawed Ludin said Islamabad was not doing enough to fight the militants, adding that there would never be peace in Afghanistan until the two nations “join hands together to fight terrorism.”

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