ISLAMABAD, March 10: A senior official of the Inter-Services Intelligence stated on Monday that Khalid Shaikh Mohammad said he last met Osama bin Laden in December at an unknown location.

“KSM (Khalid Shaikh Mohammed) confirmed he met Osama bin Laden in December,” the ISI official told some three dozen foreign correspondents at a briefing at the ISI headquarters.

However, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, who was captured in an ISI-led raid on a private home in Rawalpindi on March 1, told interrogators that he did not know “the exact destination.”

“I don’t believe him unless he gives us the location,” the official said, questioning the credibility of Khalid Shaikh’s revelations.

Reporters were told not to reveal the names of the three ISI officials briefing them.

In Monday’s briefing the ISI official also said that Khalid Shaikh had handwritten letters on him which he said were from Osama bin Laden.

“He was carrying notes he claims are written by Osama bin Laden.”

The ISI believes Osama bin Laden is alive following information gathered from Khalid Shaikh and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi, an alleged financier of the Sept 11 terror attacks who was captured with him.

“From our intelligence gathering we feel that he is alive,” the official told the briefing.

As a result of the wealth of information gathered from the pair, Al Qaeda hunters were moving significantly closer to capturing Osama bin Laden, he said.

“The main fact that Khalid Shaikh’s arrest was executed proves we are in the right direction,” he said, adding that Osama’s arrest was “the logical progression.”

He refused to say where the ISI believed Osama bin Laden was hiding, saying only that there was no clear indication he was in Pakistan. —AFP