ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Saturday it had moved helicopter gunships and troop reinforcements to its long border with Afghanistan to prevent fleeing Taliban or members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network sneaking into the country.
Top military spokesman Major-General Rashid Qureshi told reporters neither the Saudi-born militant bin Laden nor Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had entered Pakistan and they would be arrested if they did.
He declined to give the number of additional troops and what he called ``armed helicopters'' deployed along the 2,500-km (1,500-mile) border, but said: ``They are substantial. They are enough to do the job.''
Pakistan last month sealed its border with Afghanistan to prevent militants fleeing U.S.-led bombing from entering the country.
But Qureshi said on Saturday additional forces of ``regular army troops'' had been sent in the past few days to beef up security, particularly in areas opposite bin Laden's suspected hideouts in the Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan and near the main border-crossing point of Chaman in the south.
The United States launched strikes on Afghanistan to flush out bin Laden, its prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and punish his Taliban protectors.
Anti-Taliban forces on Saturday combed eastern Afghan mountains for bin Laden and hunted Mullah Omar around Kandahar in the south.
The Taliban abandoned Kandahar, their birthplace and last bastion, on Friday as the movement that held 90 percent of Afghanistan only a few weeks ago collapsed under pounding from U.S. air strikes and assaults by Afghan opponents.
``...so far there is no information that we have or anyone else has, which is credible, which says that Osama bin Laden or his partners or supporters have entered Pakistan,'' Qureshi said.
He said neither Mullah Omar, whose whereabouts were unknown after his forces surrendered in Kandahar, or any of his family members had come to Pakistan.
``However, we have beefed up security on the border...in addition to what we had done earlier,'' Qureshi said.
``There have been movements of regular army troops -- a substantial number -- specially in the areas opposite Tora Bora as well as the Chaman side. There are regular army troops being deployed in addition to what we moved earlier.
U.S. warplanes kept up air strikes overnight in the Tora Bora region, about 55 km (35 miles) south of Afghanistan's main eastern city of Jalalabad, CNN reported.
``We have increased surveillance (in the area), said Qureshi, whose government is a key member of the U.S.-led coalition.
``We are utilizing all assets, which means vehicular, manpower as well helicopter assets for increased surveillance. All that needed to be done has been done.''