Islamabad, Sept 2: Pakistani security forces had once in the past missed a chance to catch Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, who was now moving between Pakistan’s tribal areas and the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktia, Rehman Malik, the Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister on Interior Affairs, has said.

Malik, however, did not give details about the place where Zawahri could have been caught, and was also silent about the place where Laden might be hiding now.

Zawahri and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been in hiding since the 9/11 attacks on the US and are both believed to be in ethnic Pashtun tribal lands that straddle northwest Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, reported The News.

Speaking to a group of foreign media persons, Malik said that Zawahri was moving between Pakistan’s tribal areas and the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktia. “We certainly had traced him at one place, but we missed the chance. So he’s moving in Mohmand and, of course, sometimes in Kunar, mostly in Kunar and Paktia,” he said.

He added that Mohmand was one of seven Pakistani tribal regions where both Zawahri and his wife had been. (ANI)