ISLAMABAD, 21 June 2005 — Pakistan yesterday denied that leaders from Afghanistan’s ousted Taleban militia use its territory to make statements to the media, days after a purported commander from the militia told a Pakistani television channel that Osama Bin Laden and Taleban chief Mulla Omar were alive and well.

“An interview with a particular news channel is absolutely no guide to the presence of certain individuals in a particular territory,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said.

“You must have seen that a number of interviews have appeared on international channels, again in Western capitals, from other countries also, that does not mean that those individuals were actually present in the countries from where the interviews were telecast or were taken,” Jilani told a weekly news conference.

His denial came after Pakistan’s Geo television on Wednesday aired an interview with a man it said was Taleban military commander Mulla Akhtar Usmani, a former Afghan aviation minister.

The man did not specify where Bin Laden was, but said he was “absolutely fine,” and that Omar was still issuing orders.

A senior journalist at the independent station said the interview was done near the Afghan town of Spinboldak, which is close to the Pakistani border.

Pakistan was a key supporter of the Taleban militia before it switched sides and allied with the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America. A US-led coalition ousted the Taleban from power in late 2001 for harboring Al-Qaeda, the terror network of Bin Laden.

Pakistan has deployed about 70,000 troops along its border with Afghanistan and its security forces have captured more than 700 Al-Qaeda suspects in the country.

But Afghan and US officials suspect Taleban militia continue to stage rebel attacks in Afghanistan from Pakistani areas.

“Pakistan is taking whatever appropriate steps which are required and that is something which has been acknowledged,” Jilani said.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao denied a reported statement by US ambassador in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, that Omar was in Pakistan, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported. Sherpao said Pakistan has lodged a diplomatic protest.