India's defense ministry is denying media reports that U-S and British troops are hunting for the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
London's Daily Telegraph said soldiers from both countries went to the region after Indian intelligence last month placed bin Laden in the Himalayan mountains of Kashmir.
An Indian defense ministry spokesman (P-K Bandhopadhyay) today (Saturday) said there is no truth to these reports. An official with India's paramilitary Border Security Force in Kashmir told the French News Agency he has no knowledge of the reported investigations.
A U-S military spokesman said there are no American soldiers in India. In London, the British defense ministry declined to comment on the report.
The unconfirmed British newspaper report said bin Laden has a history with Kashmiri militant groups and that Indian intelligence agents believe he is in Indian-controlled Kashmir, under the protection of Islamic militant group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
There have been no reported sightings of Osama bin Laden since mid-November in the Tora Bora area of eastern Afghanistan.
U-S officials blame him and his al-Qaida terrorist network for the September 11th attacks that killed more than three-thousand people.