US, Pak deny reports of cornering Osama

Britain’s Sunday Express had reported that Laden was ‘‘boxed in’’ by US and British forces in the Pakistan along the Afghan border.

‘‘As far as reports of Osama bin Laden’s location, I don’t take much credence in them because if we knew where he was in Afghanistan, we would go get him and if the Pakistanis knew where he was in Pakistan they would get him,’’ US spokesman Bryan Hilferty said in Kabul.

Pakistani officials also dismissed the report. ‘‘That area is in Pakistan but there is nothing there, life is absolutely normal — you can go and see,’’ said Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan. “There is no operation being conducted there.’’

In another development, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said today that it will hand over Laden to the United States if he is caught on its soil.

Kasuri said that an amnesty offered by President Pervez Musharraf, where foreigners surrendering in Pakistan will not be handed over to any power, would not apply to bin Laden. If ‘‘somebody had committed a crime against the US that is separate issue’’, he said.