NEW DELHI: A senior official of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) quietly visited India last week to alert intelligence agencies about the possibility of Osama bin Laden sneaking into India, official sources said Monday.
The Pakistan-based official also sought Indian assistance for joint operations by Indian and US forces to nab the world's most wanted fugitive if he crossed over from northeastern Pakistan, the sources said.
The official's visit followed reported spotting of bin Laden in northeastern Pakistan, close to the Pakistan-China-India border tri-junction, they added.
The sources said the FBI official met senior officials of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Border Security Force (BSF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
They said the FBI official appeared to have information about the impending release of the latest videotape by bin Laden, carrying yet another warning against the US.
A few days later, on Oct 29, an unidentified person delivered the tape to the office of Al Jazeera television in Islamabad.
In the tape, bin Laden warned the American people: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaeda." He was referring to the Democratic nominee for the presidential election John Kerry and President George W Bush.
"Your security is in your own hands. Do not play with our security, and spontaneously you will secure yourself," bin Laden said in the tape.
The FBI official also offered to share intelligence with Indian agencies about areas of common interest like Afghanistan, the sources said.
Defence sources Monday dismissed as "highly exaggerated" news reports that an Indian Air Force spy plane had spotted bin Laden's convoy in northeastern Pakistan.
"Your security is in your own hands. Do not play with our security, and spontaneously you will secure yourself," bin Laden said in the tape.
The FBI official also offered to share intelligence with Indian agencies about areas of common interest like Afghanistan, the sources said.
Defence sources Monday dismissed as "highly exaggerated" news reports that an Indian Air Force spy plane had spotted bin Laden's convoy in northeastern Pakistan.
"For all you know, Osama may be living in Karachi," the Pakistani port city where many of his senior al-Qaeda and Taliban activists had found safe houses, one official said.
They noted that from his appearance in the videotape, bin Laden looked healthy and not like someone on the run.
Bin Laden was actually spotted in the flesh just a few days ago - according to DEBKAfile’s counter terror sources. Between October 17 and October 19, an Indian air force reconnaissance plane picked him up in the Tibet-Laddakh region close to the North-Eastern corner of Pakistan bordering India and China. Additional surveillance aircraft were called in and identified the al Qaeda leader on the move with a 10-vehicle convoy of black Japanese minivans. Four of the vehicles turned up again on October 22 heading east towards the Chinese border. Our sources maintain that the rumored sightings of bin Laden on the Lingzi Thang Plain on the Tibetan border in June may have been true then but are now outdated. In any case, he was not at the time in Pakistani Waziristan or the Afghan-Pakistani border.
The agents hunting the al Qaeda leader are working on the premise that he has decided to wait out the winter months in one of two regions: Hunza province in the Northern Frontier tip of Indian Kashmir or Little Pamir, where fanatical Tajik tribes have never allowed any Kabul government - whether Taliban or led by Karzai - to secure a foothold. Little Pamir is wedged between Tajikistan
where Russian special forces taking part in the bin Laden dragnet are deployed and China.
picked him up in the Tibet-Laddakh region close to the North-Eastern corner of Pakistan bordering India and China. Additional surveillance aircraft were called in and identified the al Qaeda leader on the move with a 10-vehicle convoy of black Japanese minivans. Four of the vehicles turned up again on October 22 heading east towards the Chinese border. Our sources maintain that the rumored sightings of bin Laden on the Lingzi Thang Plain on the Tibetan border in June may have been true then but are now outdated. In any case, he was not at the time in Pakistani Waziristan or the Afghan-Pakistani border.
