Islamabad: The Pakistan government on Thursday said there is no evidence that Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden is present in the country and any claims in this regard should be backed up with "actionable proof".
Reacting to British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley's statement that bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Taliban chief Mullah Omar could be hiding in Pakistan's tribal belt, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said "there is no evidence that Osama bin Laden is present in Pakistan". "Those making claims of his presence in the country should provide actionable proof of it; and if our coalition partners have any suggestions for improving our actions against the terrorists they should convey it to us instead of making assumptions," Kaira said in a statement.
Al-Qaida and Taliban have threatened Pakistan, attacked its security forces, killed civilians and targeted the country's leadership, he said. "We are therefore combating terrorism in our own interest. We do not want our efforts to be undermined by hypothetical assumptions," he added.
Pakistan's losses in the war against terrorism were more than the combined loss of Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force and it had "a record of doing more than any other single country" in the campaign, he said.