September 2, 2003	Tuesday	Rajab 4, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: Pakistan conceded on Monday that Osama bin Laden might be hiding in its tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

“Osama bin Laden’s presence anywhere in that area cannot be ruled out,” foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan told reporters.

“But if anybody knows about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, they should get in touch with the intelligence agencies either here in Pakistan or in Afghanistan or with US agencies,” he said.

The spokesman was responding to a statement by US ambassador to Pakistan Nancy Powell last week that Osama might be hiding in the tribal region of Pakistan.

Commenting on a report that appeared in UK-based The Guardian newspaper which claimed that Islamabad and Washington knew that Osama was in Pakistan, the spokesman termed it “rubbish and a pure fabrication”.

He recalled that a US spokesman last week had already rejected this report.—Agencies