Pakistan's foreign office said late Friday night that it was retracting from an earlier statement that an American missile, fired for Afghanistan on Thursday night, had fallen in Pakistan due to a technical fault, killing 5 people.

The Pakistan foreign office retracted its own statement within six hours when a statement was broadcast on state-run Pakistan Television and Radio Pakistan at 10 pm that stated that no missile had fallen on Pakistan and there were no casualties as earlier claimed in the day.

Our Washington Correspondent adds: Did Pakistan cooperate in the US attack on the terrorist camps in Afghanistan? While the bombs rained on Islamabad-backed Harkat ul-Ansar camp,the related casualties and the subsequent protests by Pakistan would indicate to the contrary, some accounts in the Pakistani and Arab media speak of a underhand deal between the two sides which may have misfired.

According to some accounts, Pakistan was in the know of the impending US attack but it leaked information to bin Laden, enabling him to escape. US intelligence indicated that around 10 p.m, when the attack was to be launched, bin Laden would just have had finished dinner with his ``visiting terrorist guests'' and repaired to an open air area for coffee. But considering that US missiles missed bin Laden, and the overall low casualties they managed to inflict, bin Laden might have had some inkling of such an attack, or at least an attempt on him.

Sharif sacks Pak IB chief over faux pax

Red-faced over its faux pas on reported Pakistani casualties in Thursday's air strikes by the US in neighbouring Afghanistan, the Nawaz Sharif government today fired the Intelligence Bureau chief andtransferred another top official. Sharif terminated the service contract of Choudhury Manzoor Ahmad, Director General of Intelligence Bureau.