ISLAMABAD: The army again denied on Wednesday that anyone in its set-up had information about Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s stay in Pakistan till he was eliminated in a US raid.

“Nobody in Pakistan knew about the presence of Osama bin Laden,” said a text message sent out by the ISPR to correspondents on behalf of the ISI. The statement said the New York Times story, which claimed that the United States had direct evidence about former ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha having knowledge about Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad, was baseless.

“There is no truth in the New York Times report,” it said.

Jamaatud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed also denied having corresponded with bin Laden.

“I completely reject allegations made in mala fide and fictitious stories by New York Times and Telegraph,” Hafiz Saeed said. “I once again challenge the US and so-called investigative journalists to provide evidence of our involvement/association with terrorist attacks/OBL.”

He accused the US of using media as a propaganda tool for furthering “its designs against Muslims”. “I challenged $10 million bounty and they had to clarify it as ‘price to find evidence’, still lies and more lies to offer; no shred of evidence,” he added.