ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat on Thursday denied a TV channel report that a man said to be a driver of Al Qaeda network chief Osama Bin Laden had been arrested during a raid conducted at Lal Masjid two days ago.

The minister told Dawn that not a single person was arrested during the raids that were conducted on Lal Masjid and a seminary in sector E-7.

He said the news regarding the arrest of Bin Laden's driver was baseless as no one was taken into custody, adding that only a Kalashnikov was recovered from the seminary.

When contacted, National Crisis Management Cell DG, Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema also said that the news was not true. "I assure you that nobody was held during the raids on Lal Masjid and its allied Madressah," he said. Ulema of various sects have announced that they would observe a black day on Friday.