Title: Osama in PoK: US may give Pak proof
Author: SUNANDO SARKAR and ALAMGIR HOSSAIN
Publication: Hindustan Times
Date: Feb 1, 2002
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/010202/detNAT09.asp

That Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is now well known to the US. Bin Laden has been hiding in Astore in the Northern Areas after fleeing Afghanistan, according to intelligence intercepts made by US forces based in Pakistan.

But for now, US President George Bush is reluctant to make a hue and cry over Osama's presence in Pakistan. One of the reasons behind Washington's invitation to General Pervez Musharraf is to show him the evidence that's now before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Musharraf's help will be recruited for an operation in a region the Americans are reluctant to tread on without unconditional, local support.

Musharraf may not be extending official hospitality to Bin Laden but he is believed to be aware of the Al-Qaeda leader's presence in Pakistan. He had tried to deflect attention by twice claiming that Bin Laden had died. He even told an American interviewer that Laden had possibly died of kidney failure.

But the US did not buy that line. Independent investigations, combined with a massive search of all ships on the Arabian Sea, led to the conclusion that Osama is hiding in the Northern Areas.

Two American Senators on the Senate Committee, Bob Graham and John Edwards, recently leaked to newspapers the fact about Washington's knowledge of Bin Laden's whereabouts.

Under US pressure, the General allowed the CIA to interrogate two Pakistani nuclear scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmud and Chaudhary Abdul Majeed.

CIA director George Tenet visited Pakistan in early December and provided evidence related to their links with the Al-Qaeda. He also gave a list of six other nuclear scientists with known links to Laden's terrorist group.

The CIA also interrogated A.Q. Khan, who heads a research laboratory named after himself. Atta-ur-Rehman, Musharraf's Minister for Science and Technology, is also suspected to have links with the Taliban's programme to develop chemical and biological weapons.