Bin Laden's absence has increased the doubts of anti-terrorism experts over the possible fate of the founder of al-Qaeda. According to the latest theory, put forward recently by the Indian media, bin Laden was killed in the devastating earthquake that struck Pakistan-administered Kashmir on 8 October, after seeking refuge in that area at the beginning of the month to avoid the military offensive in Waziristan.

However, this version has been denied by Kamal Habib, a former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group. During an interview with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, he claimed the Saudi terror leader's absence is part of a strategy, in which only al-Zawahiri appears for security reasons.

Abdel Rahim Ali, an Arab journalist and expert on Islamic movements, also rules out the death of bin Laden. "If that had happened, certainly al-Qaeda would have released the news by making an official announcement," he explains. Instead, Ali believes it is very likely that the founder of the terror organisation is seriously ill and is unable to receive the medical treatment he needs in the tribal areas where he is currently believed to be hiding.

The third and final hypothesis being considered by anti-terrorism experts is that bin Laden has fled, abandoning Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to receive medical treatment in a neighbouring country. It is thought that bin Laden may have left Afghanistan with the help of various Islamic cells spread throughout Central Asia.

All these theories suggest that al-Zawahiri has now effectively become the leader of al-Qaeda on the battlefield. Meanwhile, the Jordanian militant and leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been given the task of exporting the Jihad, or holy war, to the Middle East and Europe, as many intelligence reports claim, as well as intercepted correspondence between the two terror leaders.

Big three ... Khalid Sheikh Mohammed( bottom inset ), Ayman al-Zawahiri( left ) and Osama bin Laden( right ).

Newspaper claims Bin Laden is dead Wednesday, October 26, 2004

A Pakistani newspaper claims the founder of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, died in June in a village near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan. The Awsaf newspaper, based in the city of Multan, reports that the Saudi terror leader fell ill in Bamiyan, the region to the west of the capital Kabul where the Taliban blew up two huge 1,500-year-old Buddha statues in 2001. His protectors then took him back to the Kandahar region, where he died and was buried in a graveyard in the shadow of a mountain, the newspaper says. Awsaf says the news of bin Laden's death is supported by........    More