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Osama Bin Laden in Chitral?

* Report in US paper says Washington searching for Bin Laden in Chitral, Kalam since 2006

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: United States officials believe that Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is hiding somewhere in Chitral, a US newspaper claimed on Sunday.

According to New York’s Daily News, while there was no official word on the claim, six US officials told the paper that they had been focusing on the area since 2006 for capturing Bin Laden.

“Debriefings of Al Qaeda leaders arrested confirmed this,” said Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al Qaeda.

Two senior foreign officials said they also suspected Bin Laden could be in the nearby town of Kalam.

Citing local sources, the paper said US drones were first spotted in Chitral last summer. They were again seen on February 2 this year. Also suspicious was the fact that in view of increasing violence in parts of Chitral, Pakistan’s Tourism Ministry had declared the area out of bounds for foreigners.

On Saturday, Al Jazeera TV broadcast Bin Laden’s 29th tape since 9/11, wherein the Al Qaeda chief branded Israel’s Gaza offensive a “holocaust”, condemned moderate Arab leaders and urged his followers to prepare for holy war.

Daily News said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) believed the message was recorded in December, before heavy snow cut off Chitral from the rest of Pakistan. The paper pointed out that only four of Bin Laden’s tapes were recorded during the January-March winter and none since 2003, and considered this to be a clue.

“It does suggest some sort of seasonal limitation,” Arthur Keller, an ex-CIA case officer in Pakistan told Daily News. “It fits ... rumours ... he had ... moved away from Waziristan Agency and was hiding in Bajaur Agency or Chitral.”

Chitral “is a natural route from Afghanistan” into the Hindu Kush range, the paper quoted an ex-CIA operative in ‘Alec Station’ – the Agency’s Bin Laden unit.

“It’s closed by snow in winter, has hard to reach high villages and difficult helicopter access, a Sunni Muslim population and no random visitors,” said one expert. But, it was also “hard to get out of if cornered”.

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