KABUL, May 6: Afghan intelligence believed Osama bin Laden was in hiding in an area close to Abbottabad four years ago, but no action was taken after the claim was furiously rejected by ex-president Pervez Musharraf, Afghanistan's former intelligence chief said on Thursday.

Amrullah Saleh - who has long been a hate figure in Islamabad among officials who believed he was implacably anti-Pakistan - also said he had no doubts that Mullah Omar, the Taliban supremo, was hiding in a “safe house owned by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in Karachi”.

“He is protected by ISI, Gen Pasha (Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, director-general of the ISI) knows as I am talking to you where is Mullah Omar and he keeps daily briefs from his officers about the location of senior Taliban leaders, simple,” he said.

Mr Saleh was speaking to the Guardian soon after addressing a rally of several thousand Afghans in Kabul organised as a show of strength of what he called the “anti-Taliban constituency” who are alarmed at the prospect of peace talks with militants.

Recalling his 2007 claim about Osama, Mr Saleh said agents working for the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's intelligence service, worked out that the world's most wanted man must be inside Pakistan's settled area, rather than the semi-autonomous tribal areas, as early in 2004.

He said they believed Osama must be there based on “thousands of interrogation reports”, and the assumption that “a millionaire with multiple wives and no background of toughness” would not be living in a tent.

“I was pretty sure he was in the settled areas of Pakistan because in 2005 it was still very easy to infiltrate the tribal areas, and we had massive numbers of informants there,” he said. “They could find any Arab, but not Osama bin Laden.”

Their intelligence became more precise in 2007 when they believed he was hiding in Mansehra, a town not far from Abbottabad, where the NDS had also identified “two Al Qaeda safe houses”.

But the former spy chief said Pervez Musharraf was outraged at the suggestion that Osama bin Laden was hiding in such a prominent part of the country.

In a meeting with Hamid Karzai the former president became furious and smashed his fist down on the table. “He said, 'Am I the president of the Republic of Banana?'” Saleh recalled. “Then he turned to President Karzai and said, 'Why have you have brought this Panjshiri guy to teach me intelligence?'”

He said Karzai had to intervene as Musharraf got increasingly angry and began to physically threaten Saleh.

The killing of Osama has prompted heady speculation that an “end game” to the 10-year conflict is now at hand, with the Afghan government and the Taliban-led militants striking a deal.

'DEAL WITH TALIBAN OPPOSED:

But “deal making” were dirty words to the crowd gathered in a huge tent in Kabul lined with banners saying “We didn't vote for Karzai to make deals”, and “Don't sacrifice justice for dealing”.

Amrullah Saleh, a burly and comparatively young man who earned the respect of the CIA during his sometimes brutal leadership of Afghanistan's intelligence service, received a rapturous reception from the flag-waving crowd when he marched into the tent

He lambasted President Karzai for calling the Taliban disaffected “brothers”.

“They are not my brother, they are not your brother - those are our enemies,” he told the cheering crowd.

Saleh warned the Kabul government that his movement would not remain content with peaceful demonstrations if Karzai did not change course. Later he told the Guardian that if Karzai “sold out in order to bring the Taliban” there would be no choice but to “rise up”. “We have been exposed to a lot of weapons, it is not very difficult to resort to fighting and create influence,” he said. — Dawn/Guardian News Service