NEW YORK, May 29: Senior Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) officials said in an interview on Tuesday that the senior Al Qaeda leaders are not concentrated along the Afghanistan borders as the US officials claim, instead, they have filtered across the country into major cities.

In a rare interview with the New York Times at ISI headquarters in Islamabad these officials warned “the battle at hand may be one for Pakistan itself.”

“Broadly speaking there is an anti-West, anti-American movement now in Pakistan,” one senior ISI official told the paper. “There could be danger to individuals. Terror strikes people. It could hit the president, or anyone.”

The paper said those senior intelligence officials, who would not allow their names to be published, dismissed the American view that Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders have regrouped in remote areas on the border after being driven out of Afghanistan by American-led forces.

The ISI officials, the paper said, acknowledged that tensions with India had seriously impaired Pakistan’s ability to station troops and operate patrols along the border with Afghanistan, where American officials appear to have focused most of their concern.

The paper said referring to the crisis with India over the disputed Kashmir region, the intelligence official implicitly acknowledged that Pakistan had supported Muslim separatist insurgents into Indian-held territory in the past. He insisted, however, that the infiltration that has driven the two countries to the brink of war was halted months ago.

Under the leadership of General Ahmed’s replacement, Gen Ehsan ul-Haq, Pakistan has won praise from the United States for its support in the war on terrorism.