Pakistani prime minister says Osama Bin Laden not in the country

December 3, 2009 Yousuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister of Pakistan, has told British prime minister Gordon Brown that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is not in the country.

Brown hailed Pakistan's efforts to "disrupt the activities of al-Qaeda", and referred to them as his "allies", promising to provide another £50 million to support the operations to stabilise the borders of the nation; announcing this pledge, he said "This is your fight but it is also Britain's fight." Four days ago, he urged Pakistani officials to "join [Britain] in the major effort" to find Bin Laden, based on CIA intelligence that placed him in South Waziristan, a region of northwest Pakistan.

Gilani said in a press conference today "I doubt the information which you are giving is correct because I don't think Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan." He argues that the intelligence provided by the United States is not "credible or actionable", and requested "more clarity" from the US before he could act on it. He said that Pakistani officials "are carefully examining" Barack Obama's new Afghanistan plan, which he announced yesterday, before making a decision on whether or not to support it.