ISLAMABAD, March 6: Pakistani and US agents have narrowed the hunt for Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden to two districts along the Pakistani border with Afghanistan a senior security official said late Thursday.

“There is a possibility that Osama could be hiding in Balochistan close to the Afghan border or in Chitral,” the official told AFP, on condition of anonymity. “These areas are being searched.”

Balochistan is an arid tribal-dominated province bordering Iran and Afghanistan in Pakistan’s south-west, while Chitral lies in rugged mountains hugging the Afghan border some 300 kilometres north-west of Islamabad in North West Frontier Province.

Investigators had narrowed Osama’s possible whereabouts to the two regions based on evidence recovered from Al Qaeda’s imprisoned operations chief, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in a pre-dawn swoop in Rawalpindi city next to Islamabad Saturday.

“I will not say that we are close to the man, but there are some very important pieces of information with us,” the official said.

“If the information is accurate, then he cannot hide for long.”

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have agents in Pakistan assisting Pakistani security forces in sniffing out Al Qaeda fugitives.

In Washington White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was cautious about the impact of Sheikh Mohammed’s capture on the 18-month hunt for Osama.

“We don’t know with precision exactly what the information we’re getting will lead to. I would not want to exaggerate or overblow or overestimate anything. We are hopeful that it will lead to considerable information,” he told reporters. A Pakistani spokesman dismissed reports that Osama met Mohammed in Pakistan in February.

“This is totally incorrect. These are efforts by some people to undermine the achievements of our security agencies in the fight against terrorism,” the spokesman told AFP.

The New York Times reported that Sheikh Mohammed had met Osama, the terror network’s chief, in February possibly in Rawalpindi.

Earlier a senior security official has also said that the report “is sheer conjecture.”

The official, who was part of the team that interrogated Mohammed during his three days in captivity in Pakistan until he was flown to a US detention center in Afghanistan, told AFP that there was no substance to the claims.

“That’s pure conjecture and speculation. There is nothing in the material with us that would suggest that he met Osama in Rawalpindi or anywhere in Pakistan in February.”

The official said Sheikh Mohammed had only arrived in Rawalpindi, the crowded military garrison city next to Islamabad, a few hours before his capture in a dramatic pre-dawn swoop Saturday by US and Pakistani intelligence commandos.

“The fact is that KSM was caught only hours after his arrival in Rawalpindi,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The Times also said officials in Washington knew of no specific information to show the two men had recently met.

The Pakistani intelligence official said Sheikh Mohammed had been in the southwest province of Balochistan in February, during which he narrowly escaped a raid on an Egyptian Al Qaeda suspect’s hideout.—AFP