LONDON: Al Qaeda 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 on Thursday.
"It's not a hunch," Musharraf said, speaking from a hotel in New York.
The newspaper, without directly quoting Pakistan's military ruler, said he believed bin Laden was hiding in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar.
"Kunar province borders on Bajaur Agency. We know there are some pockets of Al-Qaeda in Bajaur Agency. We have set a good intelligence organisation," he told The Times.
Musharraf dismissed reports bin Laden may have died from typhoid fever that emerged from a French intelligence memo citing Saudi sources that was leaked to a newspaper at the weekend.
"I don't know" about bin Laden having died, he said. "Unless I am sure I never say anything," said Musharraf.
"If they have some source they should tell us. At least our intelligence does not know anything."
The report met with widespread skepticism, with French, Saudi Arabian, US and Pakistani officials saying it could not be confirmed.
The Pakistani leader 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."
