‘Sharif offered to capture Laden’

The government of former PM Nawaz Sharif offered to capture Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1999 and the US agreed to assist in training a Pakistani special forces team for the operation, but President Pervez Musharraf was ‘‘scornful’’ about the unit and the idea, a report by the commission investigating the September 11 attacks said.

‘‘By 1999, the counter-terrorism agenda had to compete with cross-border fighting in Kashmir that threatened to explode into war,’’ the report said. Nevertheless, President Bill Clinton contacted Sharif in June, urging him strongly to get the Taliban to expel bin Laden. Clinton suggested Pakistan persuade the Taliban. The Pakistan leadership offered instead that Pakistan intelligence services might try to capture bin Laden themselves. —(PTI)