Bin Laden alive in Afghanistan: Musharraf

AAP: AL-QAIDA leader Osama bin Laden, reported last week to have died, is alive and hiding in Afghanistan, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview published in The Times today.

"It's not a hunch,'' Musharraf said.

Afghanistan's eastern "Kunar province borders on Bajaur Agency. We know there are some pockets of al-Qaida in Bajaur Agency. We have set a good intelligence organisation. We have moved some army elements. We did strike them twice there. We located and killed a number of them there.''

Pakistan's military ruler also suggested links between bin Laden and Afghan warlord and former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, saying: "In Kunar province, it is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who is operating.''

"There must be some linkages.''

Musharraf also said he had no information about reports bin Laden may have died from typhoid fever .

The memo, leaked to a newspaper last weekend, emerged from a French intelligence memo citing Saudi sources

"I don't know. Unless I am sure I never say anything,'' he said.

"If they have some source they should tell us. At least our intelligence does not know anything.''

»