London: Pakistan`s Interior Minister
Rehman Malik on Monday asserted that al Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden is not in Pakistan and if anyone provided information
about him Pakistan would take action.
"If anyone has information about the presence of
Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, then it must be shared with our
government. We would take action," Malik told newsmen here.
His comments come in the wake of a statement by
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday attacking the
Pakistani leadership in exasperated tones, demanding that it
"take out" Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Zawahiri.
"The Pakistan government has started to take on the
Taliban and to take on al-Qaeda in south Waziristan, but we
have got to ask "ourselves why eight years after September 11,
nobody has been able to spot or detain or get close to Osama
bin Laden, nobody has been able to get close to Zawahiri, the
number two of al Qaeda," Brown told BBC.
Malik said "We are facing 9/11 everyday in Pakistan.
If we come to know Osama is in Pakistan, I assure you we will
take action."
Brown told the BBC that eight years after the 2001
attacks on the US, nobody had been able "to spot or detain or
get close to" the al Qaeda leader. He said more progress was
needed "in taking out" Bin Laden and his number two Ayman
Zawahiri.
Brown has spoken broadly the same points to BBC and
SKY News during the Commonwealth summit. He told Sky News that
"We believe Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan...we will want to
see more evidence of Pakistan action, not just troops in south
Waziristan but the whole of government machinery".
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is due to
meet Brown in 10, Downing street this week.
Bureau Report
