PTI

Islamabad, Dec 5: A Taliban detainee in Pakistan has claimed that one of his contacts met al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan early this year. 
 
“In 2009, in January or February I met this friend of mine. He said that he had come from meeting sheikh Osama, and that he could arrang for me to meet him,” the detainee said. “The sheikh (bin Laden) doesn’t stay at any one place. That guy (the contact) came from Ghazni province, so I think that’s where the sheikh was,” the detainee told BBC.

The detainee said militants were avoiding Pakistani territory because of the risk of US drone attacks. “Pakistan at this time is not convenient for us to stay in because a lot of our senior people are being martyred in drone attacks,” he said.

On Friday, Pakistan PM Yousaf Gilani said there was no credible evidence that bin Laden was in Pakistan.

Former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel said that the detainee’s story is plausible and should be investigated. “The entire western intelligence community have been looking for bin Laden for the last seven years and haven’t come upon a source of information like this,” Riedel said.