But they in turn were surrounded by a huge force of local tribesmen sympathetic to the militants, and there was a battle. The country has seen the most high-profile targets arrested to date: Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged planner of September 11; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, believed to be the 20th hijacker who couldn’t make it because he couldn’t get a visa; and only last week, Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who is one of the prime suspects in 1998’s US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. On a trip to Islamabad last month, the Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah of Northern Alliance fame, made some pretty vicious swipes in the direction of the Pakistani authorities at a press conference.In fact, almost all the major successes in the hunt for al-Qa’ida have been made in Pakistan. And, as many as 470 al-Qa’ida members have been captured in Pakistan, according to Dr Gunaratna.In recent months there has been more action on the Pakistani side of the border than ever before in its history.

“Even if Pakistan and Afghanistan were to put their complete armies there, they couldn’t seal the border,” says Dr Rohan Gunaratna, the author of Inside al-Qa’ida. Much of the land on either side of the border is populated by Pashtun tribesmen whose loyalties to Bin Laden and al-Qa’ida date back to the mujahadeen war against the Soviets and who have little sympathy for the US, the new Afghan government or the Pakistani authorities.The Americans claim they have combed the Afghan side of the border exhaustively. But the Afghan government has repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing enough. Everyone is passing the buck across the border.The area is certainly a prime hiding place.

The border is some 1,520 miles long and runs through some of the wildest and most inaccessible terrain on earth. More than that, there has been no noise from Bin Laden’s supporters to suggest he has been hunted down and captured or killed.The official version is still that he is in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan; which side he is actually on depends on which side you ask the question. The internet is bursting with innuendo and speculation on the possibility, but respected sources insist they are not to be taken seriously.If Bin Laden has been captured, then his captors have pulled off a disappearing act as extraordinary as Osama’s Not one official has given the slightest hint Not one sardonic smile. Ask in Pakistan, and the authorities will tell you he’s in Afghanistan.