ISLAMABAD, 10 March 2003 — A Pakistani provincial official who said last week he had reports that two sons of Osama Bin Laden had been wounded and possibly arrested in Afghanistan said yesterday he had been misquoted in media reports.
“Some newspapers and news agencies misquoted my comments to the international media,” Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, the home minister of Baluchistan, said in a statement.
“In my interview, I said quite categorically that the said operation was not being conducted on Pakistani soil and that Pakistani forces were not involved. In my statement, I said only that the reports about the arrest of Bin Laden’s sons were unsubstantiated.”
Zehri told Reuters on Friday he had heard that two of Bin Laden’s sons had been wounded and possibly arrested in an operation on Thursday by US and Afghan troops in the Ribat region of Nimroz province where Afghanistan’s border meets those of Pakistan and Iran.
He also said he had heard nine suspected Al-Qaeda members had been killed in the operation.
Zehri said at the time he could not be certain about the accuracy of the arrest report.
The White House, the Pakistani government and Afghan officials quickly said they could not substantiate the report.
