25 October 2004	Monday	10 Ramazan 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: Whereabouts of Osama bin Laden are not known to anyone, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said on Sunday while reacting to a reported claim of a US-constituted 9/11 commission member that Al Qaeda chief was hiding in South Waziristan.

"No-one knows where Osama bin Laden is," was the spokesman's response when Dawn drew his attention to a report in a section of the press quoting Commissioner John Lehman as saying the Pentagon believed that Osama bin Laden was alive and hiding in South Waziristan near Balochistan.

When Mr Khan's comments were sought on another quoting a US Defence Department spokeswoman as saying the US military believed Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan, he said: "We are getting in touch with them to clarify this matter."

When contacted, the ISPR termed the claim about Osama's presence in Pakistan mere speculation. "If they know where he is, then they should point out to us," he said.

ISPR DG Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said that Pakistan's security forces had pursued all possible targets identified by the US administration, implying that if there was concrete evidence about Osama's whereabouts it would have been shared with the authorities here.

In the recent past, several statements emanating from the US quarters have pointed to Osama's alleged presence in Pakistan or along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Significantly, these statements follow President Musharraf's declaration in a recent interview that his hunch was that Osama was alive. When a senior government official was asked about the basis of the president's statement, his brief response was: "Some broad indications".