http://www.thestatesman.net/page.new...ess=1&id=57704
Osama on the move, intelligence on alert
Abhigyan Hans in New Delhi
Oct. 21. — Central intelligence agencies are on alert following a report in a Pakistani newspaper, quoting unnamed US intelligence agency sources, that Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden has left Afghanistan and entered the rugged terrain around the Sino-Indian border.
Union home ministry officials have been intimated about the news report which appeared in Thursday’s edition of a Lahore-based newspaper. Reuters has quoted the newspaper as saying that Laden has “left Afghanistan for the rugged mountainous border areas between Pakistan and China” and that “there are reports that he has thereafter moved from a Chinese area to Ladakh and a Tibetan area of India”( sic). The newspaper, quoting “reports received by US intelligence agencies”, went on to state that the Al-Qaida chief could be sheltered by tribal lords in the area — which is “considered the world’s most difficult terrain”.
While the report says that the US authorities have already contacted their Indian counterparts in the matter, there was no official confirmation of it from the Indian side.
Incidentally, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Ms Christina Rocca, arrived in the Capital today. This evening, the National Security Advisor, Mr JN Dixit, held a meeting with the home minister Mr Shivraj Patil though it was not immediately known whether the issue also came up for discussion.
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