Pakistan challenges US on bin Laden whereabouts

Pakistan today demanded that US intelligence networks share information on the whereabouts Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaida figures.

Earlier today Pakistan rejected allegations by America’s spy chief that it is a refuge for terror leaders stating that the US intelligence director John Negroponte’s claims that Pakistan is a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists are “incorrect".

“In breaking the back of al-Qaida, Pakistan has done more than any other country in the world,” Tasnim Aslam, a spokeswoman for the ministry, said. “The proper way to do this would be to share the intelligence with us.”

In Washington on Thursday, Negroponte said that despite Pakistan’s vital role in the war on terrorism, leaders of both al-Qaida and Afghanistan’s former ruling Taliban militia are sheltering in its lawless frontier areas, largely beyond reach of US or Pakistani fighters.

Nato and the Afghan government also say Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas are launching attacks on their forces in Afghanistan from neighbouring Pakistan.

Violence rose sharply in Afghanistan in 2006, with militants killing about 4,000 people in what was the deadliest year since the US-led coalition swept the Taliban from power in 2001.

In his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Negroponte said that “eliminating the safe haven that the Taliban and other extremists have found in Pakistan’s tribal areas is not sufficient to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, but it is necessary”.

US officials have previously said they believe bin Laden and other top terror commanders are taking refuge in the region, likely on the Pakistani side of the border. Pakistan has repeatedly rejected such claims.

Interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, the top civilian security official in Pakistan, said US intelligence agencies had not shared any “specific intelligence with Pakistan on the whereabouts of al-Qaida or the Taliban”.

“We always act swiftly whenever any intelligence is shared with us. There are no al-Qaida safe havens in Pakistan,” he said.