NEW YORK - The CIA reportedly staged an elaborate fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad as part of its quest to pinpoint the location of Osama Bin Laden in the weeks before US commandos killed the al-Qaeda leader in a unilateral raid. Agents had reportedly started the vaccine drive against hepatitis B in the garrison city, where they believed the Al-Qaeda leader was, The New York Times said Tuesday, citing an American official. Dr Shakil Afridi was recruited to organise the drive and had begun in a poorer part of town to make it look more authentic, the Times said. Afridi has since been arrested for cooperating with the US intelligence agency. CIA officers allegedly concocted the vaccination programme after tracking courier Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti to Bin Ladens compound in the city last summer. They monitored the compound but wanted to know for sure that bin Laden was inside before mounting a risky full-blown attack. An American official said he remains in custody. The American official said that the doctor managed to temporarily gain access to the compound, but he never saw bin Laden and was not successful in getting DNA samples from any bin Laden family members. Getting DNA samples from the compound would have allowed the Americans to match those to the samples they already have of bin Ladens family members, and this would have offered evidence of his presence in the compound. Before launching the high-risk operation against bin Laden, US officials wanted to test DNA samples from people living at the compound with a sample that they had from his sister. Bin Laden was killed on May 2 in a raid that soured US-Pakistan relations. The US has suspended nearly $800 million in military aid to Pakistan following its reluctance to go full throttle in the war on terror.