ISLAMABAD: In a sharp reaction to the statement of the outgoing U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, that Taliban leader Mullah Omar was in Pakistan, a Foreign Office spokesman has dubbed it as "irresponsible."

"It does not behove of a senior official like Zalmay Khalilzad to make such irresponsible statements," Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told presspersons. Commenting on Mr. Khalilzad's statement, Mr. Jilani said the interview with an alleged Taliban leader at an undisclosed location did not mean that Mullah Omar or Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan.

"They could be anywhere in the world including Afghanistan," he added.

Mr. Jilani said if Mr. Khalilzad has any specific intelligence information with regard to the presence of the two individuals, "he should come forward and share it with us."

Mr. Jilani said Mr. Khalilzad's statements were at variance with the U.S. administration, which had acknowledged and praised Pakistan's efforts in fighting international terrorism.

In an interview to an Afghan television channel, Mr. Khalilzad had suggested that Mullah Omar was hiding in Pakistan and sharply criticised Islamabad's failure to act against Taliban leaders.

He said that a Pakistani TV channel had interviewed a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed they did not know the whereabouts of the Taliban leaders.

"If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country, which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces, not find them," he had said.

He also questioned Pakistan's inability to find Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi, who had given interviews from the Pakistani city of Quetta, and repeated a call for Pakistan to do more to track down Taliban figures.

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