Pakistani and US intelligence agents are questioning more 100 suspected militants loyal to Osama bin Laden in their bid to track him down, sources in northwestern Pakistan have said.
Four different teams of Pakistani intelligence officials and US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have been interrogating more than 130 Arabs in the main prison in the northwestern town of Kohat for the past few days, the sources said.
A team of Pakistani doctors yesterday visited many of the Arab fighters in the jail.
The majority of them are suffering from depression. Several prisoners had their feet badly bruised due to long walks over the craggy terrain along the Pakistan-Afghan border, a source quoted one of the doctors as saying.
He said most of the Arab detainees were also suffering from stomach problems.
Pakistani troops have fanned out across the rugged mountains in the area to keep bin Laden and his militant followers out of the country.
"We will not permit the entry of Osama bin Laden or members of al Qaeda (into Pakistan)," Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told a news conference.
"If in violation of this proclaimed policy, anyone seeks to enter into our country, he will be placed under arrest and action will be taken in accordance with the law," he said.
Mr Sattar's remarks came after Afghanistan's new defence minister, Mohammad Fahim, said the world's most wanted man had probably left Afghanistan for the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
The United States says it has no idea of the whereabouts of bin Laden, who taunted Washington in a videotape apparently shot earlier this month and aired on Wednesday.