RAWALPINDI, Jan 19: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said here on Thursday that investigations were continuing to determine whether Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri was among the foreign militants killed in last week’s US missile attack in Bajaur. “Investigations are underway. Whether or not Al-Qaeda No. 2 was killed is not clear,” he told reporters, explaining that the bodies of the militants were removed from the scene by their accomplices.

Talking to reporters after a certificate distribution ceremony at a vocational training institute in the city, the minister said: “the identity of the foreigners (killed) will be known after the investigations are completed.”

“We have condemned and as the government spokesman I still condemn the attack,” he said referring to the January 13 US air strike on three houses in Damadola village in Bajaur which also killed 18 innocent Pakistanis, most of them women and children.